Quick Links

18+ | T&Cs apply | Wagering and T&Cs apply | Play Responsibly | Advertising Disclosure

Cheltenham Festival 2026

Days

Hrs

Min

Sec

Cheltenham Festival 2026

Days

Hrs

Min

Sec

Vincent Finegan

Latest Blogs from Vincent Finegan and "My Racing Story"

Mon 28th Aug 2017

Takashi Kodama

Surviving as a trainer is so hard in Ireland and it is very hard to win races but winning the Irish Cambridgeshire at the Curragh Racecourse was my best ever result as a trainer and I would say it is unbelievable. Our mission when running in the race was to finish in the first 10â€¦ that was my mission, so to win the race makes me very, very happy.

5.12PM

Davy Russell

Russell Panel Got It Wrong

9.05AM

Tue 22nd Aug 2017

Derek McGrath Curragh CEO

Racing is not something that I grew up around or was actively involved in when I was growing up but since making the move into the industry I have continued to learn an awful lot about it and am really enjoying it.

3.42PM

Mon 21st Aug 2017

It's Silly Season

When people argue for 'culture change' it's often safe to assume they're bluffing for the sake of saying something. It's the same with phrases such as 'mindset.' They're helpfully vague and can be unaccompanied by detail. They've certainly helped yours truly out more than once. But when it comes to helping the lot of female jockeys there really does need to be a change of culture and mindset. And if that seems too wishy-washy then early detail of the impact of French racing's allowance for female riders indicates such change can be tangible sometimes.

9.13AM

Mon 14th Aug 2017

Peter Fahey

Thankfully we’ve enjoyed a great start to the new season and things have been going well this summer but we’re just lucky to have the nice horses to train.

5.02PM

Jim Bolger, Ryan Moore and Aidan O'Brien at the launch of Longines Irish Champions Weekend

Beleagured Bookmakers

9.04AM

Mon 7th Aug 2017

Aubrey McMahon

Winning the big amateur race at the Galway Festival is certainly a feeling I haven't had too often. When I crossed the line on Whiskey Sour, Patrick Mullins and Katie Walsh were roaring at me saying well done and I just said “I can’t believe it’s after happening”, it was a feeling I can’t really describe.

10.15PM

The Galway Betting ring

A Moveable Feast

9.01AM

Tue 1st Aug 2017

Shark Hanlon

When you are a neighbour of a star man like I was to Paddy Mullins, you have to develop some interest in horses and growing up so close to Paddy always had me intrigued and eventually I got out of the cattle dealing and went in to training horses and we are happy out there now with the horses.

12.00PM

Mon 31st Jul 2017

Sooner Rather Than Later

British racing is taking its first steps towards replacing amateur stewards with professional panels. Racing is too big for its regulation to be seen left in the hands of well-meaning volunteers. It's inevitable here too. The perception of a state-subsidised industry aspiring towards €2 billion in value being policed by well-intentioned amateurs regulating their own isn't sustainable. Yet it still appears to be very much a case of later rather than sooner when it comes to acknowledging this.

8.59AM

Mon 24th Jul 2017

Jody McGarvey

One man’s misfortune can often be another man’s gain and with both Barry Geraghty and Mark Walsh out through injury recently, I’ve been lucky enough to get a lot of opportunities for JP McManus and things have been going great.

4.56PM

Stars Over The Sea and Davy Roche winning the void race at Killarney

Alternative Facts

9.25AM

Mon 17th Jul 2017

Don't Believe All Of The Hype

We're endlessly reminded how racing is a game of opinions. And there is no subject to conjure firmer opinions than jockeys. That's common to everywhere. What's fascinating is how divergent such opinions can get either side of the Irish Sea. Ryan Moore gets routinely referred to in Britain as the world's leading jockey and is near-venerated by a media he affects to despise with his position as Coolmore's No.1 widely regarded as little more than his due. Yet in Ireland he seems to provoke a more lukewarm response.

9.06AM

Fri 14th Jul 2017

Josh Sheahan

When I went to Limerick last Sunday to watch my horse, Top Of The Town, run, I didn’t expect to go viral after it, but I’ve people texting me from America, Australia and New Zealand about it and it’s gone a bit mad altogether. And that’s after he lost. If he’d have won you may forget about it! But that’s what it’s all about, having a laugh and the craic.

9.17AM

Mon 10th Jul 2017

It Doesn't Do What It Says On Tin

The law may be an ass but racing's laws are more of a camel. Only a camel construction committee could come up with a system that allows you win even if you foul through interference or breaking the whip rules. Currently the focus is on another integrity contradiction which long ago bypassed any oasis of good sense and continues to lumber through the regulatory desert. Pacemakers go against both the word and spirit of the rules of racing. But no time soon will the practise stop.

9.07AM

Thu 6th Jul 2017

Michael Higgins

Being the general manager of the Irish Injured Jockeys means that some days can turn quite challenging but others can become quite rewarding. No two days are the same in this job but it’s great to see the charity moving forward quicker than we ever could have hoped since the Irish Injured Jockeys was set up in 2014.

11.59PM

Mon 3rd Jul 2017

'Ah Here!'

The 2017 Irish Derby shows how racing lacks quite a few things. A basic self-awareness for one. Restricting access to its showpiece event was a joke in PR terms: failure to even make the paltry capacity limit turned it into a sad joke. It also revealed a sadder failure to appreciate how taking state money behoves an industry to not treat the public as intruders. Racing's playpen has rarely looked more childishly self-absorbed or indulgent. But what the Derby debacle really showed once again is a lack of anyone in authority prepared to shout 'Ah Here!'

9.10AM

Thu 29th Jun 2017

John Tuthill

Being a breeder and watching a filly that you have kept to race go and win a stakes races on her last racecourse appearance is a dream scenario and it was wonderful to live that dream with Penny Pepper at the Curragh last month.

4.11PM

Mon 26th Jun 2017

Tip-Toeing Through The Minefield

The seemingly interminable talks about a protocol that will allow the Turf Club drug-test on stud farms still go on. However Horse Racing Ireland, and specifically its chief executive Brian Kavanagh, has got involved in negotiations between the regulatory body and the Breeders Association. Kavanagh's ability to tip-toe through racing's political minefield is renowned. So maybe he can finally bring this to a satisfactory conclusion because God alone knows it won't be before time.

9.39AM

Thu 22nd Jun 2017

Rachael Blackmore

From my point of view, the decision to turn professional and become the first ever female jockey in Ireland to do so, was a no brainer, but I really never dreamed it would go this well and riding out my claim at Wexford on Wednesday capped off an incredible few months.

4.04PM

Mon 19th Jun 2017

The January Waste Land

April may be the cruellest month but the new 'February Jumps Festival' looks like making January the dullest. The decision to create a new super €1.5 million National Hunt festival follows the racing trend towards showpiece concentrations of excellence. It will result in one superb weekend's action at Leopardstown. It will also reduce a substantial number of other weeks to mostly filler status and that's a debatable outcome for the sport overall.

9.01AM

Mon 12th Jun 2017

This Isn't Hardcore

There have been six Curragh meetings run this year and the focus during each of them has often been on how the decision not to close down during the track's €70 million reconstruction is a slap in the face to the racing public. And it's a valid argument if not entirely straightforward. For instance it's interesting to consider just how valid much of the speculation about the impact on racing's hardcore fans actually is. Because just how many such hardcore fans exist? Are there even a thousand in the country?

9.28AM

Mon 5th Jun 2017

History On The Hoof

As well as showing great poise in pulling off a shock Epsom Derby victory, Padraig Beggy was impressive too in acknowledging his success was mostly down to Aidan O'Brien. As racing loyalty goes this was exceptional stuff. And Beggy took his opportunity in such style that there's no slight in pointing out the suspicion that if O'Brien can supply such an unlikely hero with an indelible place in racing history then there really does seem to be no limit to what he can do.

9.10AM

Mon 29th May 2017

Gone Fishing

Actual racing doesn't come much better than the Guineas festival weekend at the Curragh. Three Group 1's including two classics and a handful of other valuable races show off flat racing at its very best. In elite sporting terms if this doesn't float your boat then it's time to go fishing. So how dispiriting is it that HQ's controversial reduced 6,000 capacity didn't come even half way to being threatened on either day. Spin it any way you like but that's lamentable.

9.10AM

Mon 22nd May 2017

Tone Change Needed On Interference Rules

It's four months since the Turf Club introduced its new 'Running and Riding' rules. The impact in terms of making penalties stick has been dramatic. Eight 'Non-Trier' penalties have been handed out. Four were appealed. One was entirely successful and another partially so. Statistically it's hardly earth-shattering stuff which only proves how misleading statistics can be. Because culturally the new rules have been transformative.

9.01AM

Mon 15th May 2017

A Frilly Point To Point

The improvisational skill of those on the ground at the Curragh is to be applauded. To produce the facilities for racing to continue during the €70 million redevelopment of Irish racing's most famous track is no easy feat. That it's not easy to dismiss the suggestion those facilities might be prettier than a lot of what was torn down says much about what the Curragh had turned into. But after such an admirable exhibition of improvisation the obvious question still remains - why is it necessary?

9.13AM

Mon 8th May 2017

Drinking The Churchill 'Kool-Aid'

It's fair to say opinions are divided on Churchill's Guineas success. Either he's the next great or he got lucky. Dismissing as lucky a champion juvenile who proceeds to win the 2,000 Guineas seems very harsh indeed. Neither however can anyone pretend Churchill stunned Newmarket with his flamboyance on Saturday. But maybe showy brilliance is simply not his thing. To use the cliché, maybe he really is one of those horses who only does just enough.

8.42AM

Mon 1st May 2017

Judging A Bookmaker By Its Cover

Perception is a buzzword right now and about time too. Judging a book by its cover might be mistaken but racing's integrity is often as much about how things look as how they actually are. So while jockeys and trainers signing up with bookmakers for their exclusive thoughts might in reality be little more than a nice little sideline earner, and a mostly harmless exercise in advertising baloney, in terms of perception it can look uncomfortably cosy.

9.24AM

Mon 24th Apr 2017

Maths For Dummies

A blizzard of complex stats, tots, trends and percentages will accompany the trainer's championship at Punchestown this week. Gordon Elliott V Willie Mullins is the heavyweight clash which has dominated the 2016-17 campaign and promises to bring a remarkable season to a memorable climax. So facts will be flung and statistics slung. But facts and truth aren't synonymous and the truth is the most significant sum in all this is pretty straightforward.

9.21AM

Mon 17th Apr 2017

Begging The Questions

It's the job of those charged with promotion to promote so it's hard to criticise bigging-up this year's Boylesports Irish Grand National and its new €500,000 pot. Almost doubling the prizemoney was linked to boosting the National's quality and profile. There's no doubt a tagline of the richest jumps race ever run in Ireland is snappy. But quality-wise it's hard not to think the same field would still have turned up for the old money no matter what anyone says.

9.08AM

Mon 10th Apr 2017

How's About The Start?

Perhaps the most admirable element to One For Arthur's Grand National success was the faith shown in jockey Derek Fox by the horse's connections. This was a prime Aintree candidate. Presumably plenty agents for more high-profile riders were offering their services, especially with injury doubts about Fox on the run-up to the race. With so much on the line it would have been easy to look elsewhere. But the 24 year old Sligo man got an opportunity and took it in style.

8.45AM

Mon 3rd Apr 2017

Culture Change

Asking how long culture-change takes is like asking how long is a piece of string. But it's ultimately in everyone's best interest that the culture surrounding racing's 'Non-Trier' regulations changes quickly. Encouragement that the new Rule 212 might provoke that rarest of racing feats - actual change - comes from the voices currently being raised against it. Racing is onto something here. What's required now is perseverance with this badly needed change of regulatory culture.

9.05AM

Mon 27th Mar 2017

To Have And Have Not

The gaping divide between jump racing's haves and have not's won't be filled by fiddly tweaks to the programme book, convoluted handicap conditions, more prizemoney or cosmetic social-media courses. Those spouting 'positive' platitudes will dismiss that as pessimism. It isn't. It's simply an acknowledgement that the gap exists not through misfortune but as a consequence of Irish racing's official policy for over a decade and a half.

8.57AM

Mon 20th Mar 2017

Wrap The Green Flag Round Me Boys

The median between wrapping the green flag round Cheltenham's 19-9 scoreline and Michael O'Leary dismissing the British-Irish bit as a \"f---ing load of nonsense\" is probably the safest point on the festival spectrum. O'Leary has logic on his side. The flag-waving really is an affectation. But it's relatively harmless and provides something other than punting for the public to hang its hat on. And it all means too much to too many for it be just about betting. It's vital though that Irish routs don't become a habit.

8.53AM

Mon 13th Mar 2017

Some Real Cheltenham Rivalry

Cheltenham's Anglo-Irish rivalry carries some edge this week on the back of those 'post-Brexit' spats with the BHA handicapper. However the curio that means Irish racing's most high-profile festival is run in England means flag-waving is mostly an affectation: caring what winner is trained where is a luxury for most punters. What's notable about this festival is how some proper home-grown rivalries are going to be transplanted to Gloucestershire and in all likelihood dominate the week.

8.33AM

Mon 6th Mar 2017

The Diluted Olympics

The hoariest Cheltenham cliché of all is that it's 'Our Olympics.' Except it isn't. Not if you judge it by true 'Fastest, Highest, Longest & Strongest' standards. Because for an ultimate championship event it's remarkable how many questions are likely to be left hanging after next week's action. And they'll hang because the logistics of mounting a four day festival have resulted in a degree of filler which continues to dilute competition.

8.39AM

Mon 27th Feb 2017

Support Your Local Sheriff

It appears there's a new sheriff in town and its name is the new Rule 212. Armed with an amended wording that requires jockeys to be seen to make a reasonable effort, it seems there's a new willingness among officials to actively pursue running-and-riding rules. It's a badly needed development and while many will ultimately judge its seriousness in relation to some of the industry's big-hitters it appears to be a framework within which officials can effectively operate.

9.02AM

Mon 20th Feb 2017

Negotiating The Future

Andy Warhol said every social action is a negotiation but he might have looked at the discussions between the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association and the Turf Club as an exercise in social action for its own sake. The point is supposed to be the implementation of an urgently needed drug testing protocol to help protect the credibility of Ireland's bloodstock industry. Except you'd hardly know it.

8.57AM

Mon 13th Feb 2017

What If Punch-Bag wins Gold Cup?

The horse that emerged with the most enhanced reputation from Leopardstown's quadruple- Grade 1 card didn't even run. Any notion Douvan may have been a playground bully in repeatedly beating up Sizing John can be binned with the latter successfully stepped up to three miles in the Irish Gold Cup. Now Sizing John goes for the real thing at Cheltenham. Who knows how much he might improve for further again: and who knows how the Douvan camp will feel if, having taken the prudent two-mile route this season, their former punching-bag actually wins the ultimate prize?

9.04AM

Mon 6th Feb 2017

Cash In Hand - No Questions Asked

Many within racing have been quick to dismiss TD Clare Daly's Dail declarations about the industry containing wholesale illegality as simply a leftie rant by another disaffected Trot. Some of them are probably also bemoaning how difficult it is to get good staff. They seem either unwilling or unable to make the link between that and how much staff get paid and how they're treated. That has got rather lost in all this.

8.32AM

Mon 30th Jan 2017

'Hare' De Bromhead

George Harrison isn't an immediate spot as Henry De Bromhead's doppelganger but it's been forcibly pointed out to me that the media has been so myopic in its John & Paul love-in with Messrs Mullins and Elliott this season that we've overlooked the third virtuoso on Irish racing's magical mystery tour. One respected racing professional, who isn't from Waterford, and insists he barely knows the trainer, seethed indignantly on Sunday : \"He's the real story, how he's stepped it up; but it's just like George in the Beatles, always in the shadows.\"

9.12AM

Mon 23rd Jan 2017

Just Turn Off The Tech

I once made No.51 in someone's online 'C--t of the Year' chart. Louis Walsh was 52. Joe Brolly was only 64 - what ya think of DAT! Did it constitute abuse? Hardly. There are a few within racing who'd have me Top Ten at least. I made the indulgent error of 'googling' myself and found out what some nut with time on his hands thought of me. So there's the tip for the boys and girls of the jockey's room: if you don't want to feel abused, don't go on social media. It's not renowned for kindness.

8.43AM

Mon 16th Jan 2017

An Irish Solution To An Irish Problem

Proof of just how litigious the policing of racing has become is stamped all over the Turf Club's radical new running and riding regulations. They cover a multitude of angles and scenarios to an extent unparalleled anywhere else in the world. The pity is that they have come to be so necessary but kudos to the expertise that's clearly gone into them. The regulations are in place - what counts is how seriously they are enforced. And ultimately the greatest signal of seriousness is likely to be that final fateful step towards professional stewarding.

8.54AM

Mon 9th Jan 2017

One More Thing...

Having finished up last week proclaiming there's nothing more boring than hacks talking hackery the obvious indulgent thing to do this week is talk journalism, or at least the comic-book version that is racing journalism which gets routinely dismissed as a gravy train from which us frauds and fakes trading under the media label loudly slurp while a poor, downtrodden betting public is forced to exist on fresh air and indignation.

9.09AM

Mon 2nd Jan 2017

2017 A Critical Year For Turf Club

The New Year is set to be a critical one for the Turf Club and its future credibility. If 2016 saw focus switching from the beleaguered regulatory body to Horse Racing Ireland then 2017 is likely to see it return to how the racing and bloodstock industries are policed. A number of new initiatives in terms of drug-testing and rule-changes are in the pipeline. But as is often the case with regulation, the key question isn’t rules but how they are enforced.

9.55AM

Sat 24th Dec 2016

Racing's 12 Tales Of Christmas 2016

1: Ride of the Year - Harzand’s Epsom Derby was Pat Smullen’s most important victory of this or any year. But his effort last July when riding Xsquared for more than a circuit of Killarney with the saddle slipping ever further up the horse’s neck was exceptional. Ireland’s champion jockey is renowned for his professionalism: this was proof of his brilliance.

10.44AM

Mon 19th Dec 2016

Quality Racing Actually Matters Sometimes

All eyes can now focus on the upcoming Christmas action — Friday’s unloved Dundalk fixture apart — when tradition has it that even those with no interest in the sport go racing on St Stephens Day. The cartoon is that these once-a-year racegoers cram in to Leopardstown in particular and are barely aware of horses outside. And that may be true. It’s reassuring though how Christmas attendance figures indicate how the quality of the actual racing can matter sometimes.

9.21AM

Mon 12th Dec 2016

We Are Where We Were

We are where we are: a phrase as banal as it is unarguable. But it pretty much sums up where Horse Racing Ireland is right now. Having slalomed its way around public guidelines over Brian Kavanagh’s reappointment as chief executive, become the focus of public criticism over its governance, got dragged before the Oireachtas to explain itself only to display braying unrepentant arrogance in doing so, and manoeuvring with startling expediency throughout, we now appear to be where we are - which is exactly where we were before.

8.52AM

Mon 5th Dec 2016

How To Be Seen

As a rule, problems with rules are to do with enforcement rather than the rules themselves. But Irish racing’s ‘non-trier’ regulations are an exception. They can be both restrictive and too open to interpretation. They also have to be applied in an environment where proving intent up to Burden of Proof ‘M’Lud’ standard is all but impossible. So the rules need a rewrite if stewards are to have any chance and either literally or figuratively they need to include two words - ‘Be Seen.’

9.09AM

Mon 28th Nov 2016

Dare To Think, Dare To Act

I’ve been asked where I stand on the plight of racing’s middle tier and its economic struggle for survival against the industry’s elite players. And the answer is I don’t know where to stand because it’s very complicated. What is noticeable though is how such an otherwise conservative and self-consciously hard-nosed private enterprise sector has suddenly got so welfarist, maybe even, God Forbid, a touch Maoist; who’d have thought?

9.04AM

Subscribe to latest horse racing offers

Latest News