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Cheltenham Festival 2026

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Cheltenham Festival 2026

Days

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Vincent Finegan

Latest Blogs from Vincent Finegan and "My Racing Story"

Mon 23rd Feb 2015

Phillip and The Simulator

Leading dancer Emma O'Kane and WillFredd Theatre are preparing for show entitled Jockey, which will come to theatres nationwide in May 2015. Emma's been learning to ride for the project, as well as researching her grandfather Phillip de Burgh O' Brien, a bloodstock agent and racing journalist who died before she was born.

2.25PM

Willie Mullins

That Voodoo That We Doo Doo

9.30AM

Fri 20th Feb 2015

Midweek Can Be The New Weekend

It's been said this week by Willie Mullins but it's been said by so many before that and especially in the past couple of years that Racing is missing a trick not bossing midweek sporting headlines on a regular basis.

4.20PM

Mon 16th Feb 2015

Rising Trot

Leading professional dancer Emma O' Kane and WillFredd Theatre are preparing for a show named JOCKEY, which will come to theatres nationwide in May 2015. Emma has been learning to ride for the project, as well as researching her grandfather Phillip de Burgh O' Brien, a bloodstock agent and racing journalist who died before she was born. BLOG POST 2 - Rising Trot

3.16PM

Hurricance Fly winning the 2013 Champion Hurdle

Science Schmience

9.11AM

Fri 13th Feb 2015

The Long Goodbye

It was said on RacingFM this week that AP McCoy is now going to enjoy the \"long goodbye\" similar to that received by Brian O'Driscoll when he announced he was to retire from Rugby, and I am sure other examples will spring to people's minds when I make that comparison.

7.43PM

Mon 9th Feb 2015

In The Blood

Leading professional dancer Emma O' Kane and WillFredd Theatre are preparing to present a show entitled JOCKEY which will premiere at VISUAL, Carlow on May 15th 2015. For this project Emma has been learning how to ride as well as researching her grandfather Phillip De Burgh O' Brien, a bloodstock agent and racing journalist who died before she was born. Over the next twelve weeks Emma will bring you an exclusive blog on irishracing.com about her family research, her riding lessons and the creation of Jockey.

3.56PM

Carlingford Lough (right) won the Hennessy Chase at Leopardsown

A True Great - But Not The Best

8.38AM

Mon 2nd Feb 2015

Talent Counts - Not Gender

Racing is so obsessed with success that gender is mostly irrelevant - except it seems in relation to jockeys. The consensus appears to be that female jockeys can still face prejudice. But it's worth betting that when the inevitable occurs and an exceptional female riding talent does emerge from Ireland the fact of her sex will mean nothing. Because even the most Neanderthal of racing males values an edge over the opposition much more than any stupid prejudice.

8.58AM

Fri 30th Jan 2015

Bar A Fall

He wins bar a fall, surely that's all that can stop Un De Sceaux in the Arkle now after a show stopping dispatch of two of the most promising novices in training at Leopardstown last weekend.

8.28PM

Mon 26th Jan 2015

Joe Prole's Peashooter

The Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has made his feelings known about a new Horse Racing Ireland board, pledging it will be \"representative as well as functional\" and agreeing with the Oireachtas Committee's view that voices from people at racing's everyday coalface should be heard more. Commendable stuff, heart-warming even: and then he goes just that bit too far - \"This isn't an industry that should be run by the big guns.\" Aw, Simon.

8.50AM

Fri 23rd Jan 2015

Gowran Fogs up the Gold Cup Picture

I had a great day at Gowran Park yesterday for the Thyestes Chase and have to say everyone did a great job in providing such a great service to the race goers in terms of pictures and commentary once it was clear ( no pun intended) that the fog wasn't going away.

4.36PM

Mon 19th Jan 2015

The Glass Must Be Half-Empty

An upcoming announcement on the composition and reach of Irish racing's new drugs taskforce comes on the back of the Cobalt controversy currently dominating headlines in Australia. Three high-profile Australian trainers are under investigation and vehemently protest their innocence. There is also no evidence of cobalt chloride use in Irish racing. But if this taskforce is to be effective it is vital it remembers there was no evidence of steroids here either before the Fenton case. When it comes to doping the presumption always must be the cheats are a step ahead.

9.20AM

Fri 16th Jan 2015

To play or not to play

It is a busy time in the Ante Post markets for Cheltenham as the leading contenders strut there stuff on the track and targets are identified in post race interviews. This is always quickly followed by a colourful clamour of bookmaker reps to dazzle you with quotes and stories of piles of cash landing in the offices for one good thing after another.

9.41PM

Mon 12th Jan 2015

You Get What You Don't Pay For

The difference between amateur and professional often has nothing to do with ability but rather the professional being able to do the job NOW and the signal of intent that sends out. There is a rather topical link here to the BHA's plans for a belated enquiry into Aidan Coleman's use of the whip in the Welsh National but also in broader terms about the need for professional stewarding in Ireland.

9.06AM

Mon 5th Jan 2015

Hearts And Minds Require A Grip

Potentially the single most significant development of 2015 is hair-sample science, something with the capacity to keep a firm grip of those balls which will assure hearts and minds stay focussed on combating doping. Believe the lab wonks and it's only a matter of time before the key to a horse's pharmaceutical history will simply be hanging there in its tail. It must be racing's interests to perfect the science as soon as possible.

8.54AM

Mon 29th Dec 2014

How Was It For You

Davy Russell got the Gigginstown bullet on New Year's Eve 2013 so there's a presumption in consigning 2014 completely to history just yet but everyone else seems to be in review-mode and in this case Russell provides a neat synchronicity since his Cheltenham Gold Cup winning ride on Lord Windermere is sure to figure among the most notable highlights when 2014 is recounted.

9.35AM

Mon 22nd Dec 2014

Planet Fundamental Contradiction

Would the proverbial Martian, if he'd dropped to earth for Ascot's Ladbroke Hurdle, have looked at the outcome and concluded Noel Fehily is a mug? And if so, can a cogent argument be presented as to why he might be wrong? You know, apart from hopelessly subjective stuff about some horses running for the whip and others not: in cold logical terms could you persuade said Martian that the relevant whip rules haven't originated on the planet Fundamental Contradiction?

9.08AM

Fri 19th Dec 2014

"Cliff Horses" are not just for Christmas

To be clear from the outset \"Cliff Horses\"; are not for the faint hearted but more for the soft hearted among us who love racing and love being right... Eventually!

4.21PM

Mon 15th Dec 2014

The Risk/Reward Dilemma

Clearly Philip Fenton’s decision-making hasn’t been great recently but a call not to appeal the severity of his three year disqualification for possession of anabolic steroids looks a rare piece of sound judgement from the disgraced trainer. History suggests the authorities would have been unlikely to view such chutzpah as an invitation to increase the penalty but few would have quibbled if they had because a sound argument can be made that Fenton has got off lightly.

9.20AM

Fri 12th Dec 2014

Equine Personality of the Year

With the return of the enigmatic Mad Moose just a few hours away I noticed the horse had remarkably done more tweeting than running in the last 12 months since his ban by the BHA.The talented, but shall we perhaps say intelligent dual purpose performer, will hit the racetrack again on Saturday and his loyal fan base are right behind him. It might help if that was a literal statement and preferably if they could wave a few items at him to encourage him along once the tapes are released. Just a suggestion…

5.13PM

Mon 8th Dec 2014

Australia is Horse of the Year

Horse of the Year is a major sweat in the USA and about as relevant here as racing on dirt. In America the award defines careers: here it defines Horse Racing Ireland’s awards day - which happens to be today – before being more or less forgotten. When Hurricane Fly’s copious achievements are listed, getting Horse of the Year in 2011 and 2013 rarely gets a look in. He’s in there again for 2014 but any other result than Australia might relegate the award to curio status.

9.04AM

Fri 5th Dec 2014

Arbitrage

It's a lovely sensible word isn't it. Not the most fun that can be had in 9 letters I'd imagine but a good name for a nice slow ground devouring long distance staying chaser maybe? I'll get to that later....

7.40PM

Mon 1st Dec 2014

Tell ‘Em Nothin’

Imagine a sport has a rampant drugs issue. Then imagine those in charge of the sport squabbling over the money to fight it. Then imagine how that looks to a sceptical public already disposed to believing those within the sport aren’t serious about tackling doping at all. If it were athletics or cycling, the reaction would be automatic, as automatic as the instinctive suspicion that those sports’ credibility is shot to hell. Does racing seriously believe it plays by rules that are so different?

9.10AM

Fri 28th Nov 2014

What is the problem with common sense?

Well another week and another interesting tail of woe for Racing in the UK as the cuffs don't match the collars when it comes to flags. You have to wonder what the thought process is when making an unfortunate mistake easy fodder for negative front page news. Matters taken in hand by the powers at the track immediately after the race and a few hands held up would have buried the void race at Sedgefield into the \"in other news\" section next to the classifieds. But that requires common sense...

5.07PM

Mon 24th Nov 2014

Is the Cure in the Hair of the Horse?

Ireland is a great place for tokenism and the temptation to offer up Philip Fenton’s three year disqualification as a sufficient gesture for normal racing service to be resumed will no doubt be irresistible to some. However racing must resist that temptation, and be seen to resist it. A long, laborious and painful process has resulted in one scalp but only the naive or wilfully obstinate will choose to indulge in convenient ‘lone-gunman’ comfort. Fenton now finds himself in a singularly unenviable position but it stretches credulity to suggest he was unique.

9.46AM

Fri 21st Nov 2014

A Good Horse Always Has You Dreaming

It’s that time of year, nothing yet lost and nothing yet gained. Plenty of horses reappearing in the National Hunt sphere with high hopes and dreams very much intact.

4.46PM

Mon 17th Nov 2014

Fist-Bumping The Kids

The pursuit of youth is perpetual in business since they’re the ones with the old long-term-disposable and it is racing’s good fortune is that persuading post-pubers of its attractions is pretty straightforward because you either get this game or you don’t. No embarrassing attempt to fist-bump with the kids is going to persuade any adolescent otherwise if they don’t fundamentally get the gee-gees. So what’s left is to treat the converted properly, something anyone can understand no matter how old.

9.24AM

Thu 13th Nov 2014

A Non Starter For Ten

It’s been a ritual for a longer than I care to recall that on the eve of this very weekend I would be scrutinising the longest list of National Hunt horses in training, printed on what was probably the smallest print used in mainstream media, in a folly attempt to put all my favourite eggs in one basket of 10…To Follow.

5.24PM

Mon 10th Nov 2014

The State of Welfare

Horse racing has no shortage of controversial topics to deal with but in overall reputational terms pretty much everything pales in comparison to the issue of horse welfare. It is HORSE racing after all. And while most of the general public manage to carry on just fine without the game troubling their minds at all, not doing right by the animals around which everything revolves is something even the most ignorant can understand. So racing has to do right by its horses, and be seen to be doing it.

9.37AM

Fri 7th Nov 2014

It's Getting Exciting

The International scene has provided some superb highlights over the last week with a nigh on Hollywood ending to Jamie Spencer’s marmite career as Toast Of New York came close to Breeders Cup glory and Ryan Moore, everyone’s favourite spread, landed another Group 1 in the race that stops a nation Down Under.

9.28PM

Mon 3rd Nov 2014

V For Victory

Perhaps only in sport is the word ‘veteran’ employed in a negative sense and rarely in racing is it used as a compliment. But Paul Carberry’s barnstorming performance to win the first Grade 1 of the National Hunt season on Road To Riches is just the latest example of why the vernacular needs to catch up. Because if veteran is racing’s polite code for washed-up it’s starting to look very old-fashioned.

8.42AM

Fri 31st Oct 2014

Where to Focus?

Some serious racing this weekend and it's hard to know what to focus on.

6.01PM

Mon 27th Oct 2014

Tiptoeing Behind The Babysitters

Perhaps the most significant recent comment about doping within Irish racing hasn’t come in a court or on a racecourse but in a drab Dail Committee room where a Department of Agriculture official basically dismissed the idea that Turf Club officials might be given ‘seizure’ powers. That means the industry’s new drugs-regime, due to kicks in on January 1, will have one hand tied behind its back before it even starts.

9.26AM

Fri 24th Oct 2014

A Fool And His Money….

That title just about sums up my week following last weeks blog. I’ve been called a few names and thoroughly enjoyed the reaction and interaction on RacingFM following Forgotten Rules success at Champions Day at Ascot.

2.29PM

Thu 23rd Oct 2014

Thanks for the Feedback

On behalf of all the staff at irishracing.com I would like to thank everyone who took the time to complete our recent marketing survey. Almost 1,300 people completed the survey which was designed to aid our commercial team in their never ending pursuit of advertising revenue. It is this revenue which keeps irishracing.com a 100% Free resource and helps us to maintain the standards of service that you expect.

11.18AM

Mon 20th Oct 2014

That Johnny Murtagh Wasn’t A Bad Jockey

The government flashed-the-cash in the budget, pledging E23 million extra to racing over the next three years, a move not surprisingly welcomed within the industry as a sign that maybe, after six years of funding cuts, the worst of the economic hump is over. What will be interesting to those of us without the industry is how the extra dough is divvied up: money talks, and where it goes says everything that needs to be said about priorities, and especially now.

9.18AM

Fri 17th Oct 2014

Searching for Stardust….

There has been a lot of talk on RacingFM this week about the lack of stardust at the Ascot Champions Day this year. Journalist Donn McClean, jockeys Slippers Madden and Gary Carroll have all chipped in with me on the airwaves on the subject and with the weather, the Irish Champions Weekend getting the prime slot and runners sloping off to the paddocks it’s becoming a bug bear talking point.

5.05PM

Mon 13th Oct 2014

Playing Game On Its Merits

Those bemoaning the supposedly premature retirement of Australia as a sign of flat racing’s arid soul might consider how it is in fact a game that is both sport and business: always has been, always will be. As John Giles famously insists, every game has to be taken “on its merits” so failure to get the head around that duality is an inevitable recipe for heartache. Sentiment might make us wish for Australia to have a four year old career but it is always easy to be sentimental with someone else’s money.

9.13AM

Mon 6th Oct 2014

Viva La Revolucion!

Can you imagine a different golf rulebook for different countries? Or tennis laws that vary from tournament to tournament? Or a football foul in one place that isn’t in another? Of course you can’t, because that would be very stupid. It’s not like there’s a shortage of evidence to suggest a similar standardisation of racing rules around the world is desperately required, but anyone in need of more got it in spades during the Arc weekend.

8.59AM

Mon 29th Sep 2014

Arc Still The Ultimate Prize

The Coolmore team have never left anyone in doubt of their passionate devotion to Epsom Derby success but there seems to be a comparative ambivalence from racing’s most powerful operation towards Europe’s other great mile and a half prize, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. It’s a point which will again be starkly made by the absence of Australia from Sunday’s race, thirteen years after the dual-Derby winner’s sire Galileo skipped out on Longchamp.

9.18AM

Mon 22nd Sep 2014

Nothing To Hide

It is twenty five years since the rest of Europe woke up to the fact that Dermot Weld’s old jockey wasn’t too shabby. Once it was found out subsequent demand for Mick Kinane meant Weld eventually had to appoint a new jockey. Fifteen years later the trainer must shake his head in happy disbelief that he doesn’t have to cope with similar demand headaches in relation to Pat Smullen.

9.31AM

Mon 15th Sep 2014

A Hell Of A Weekend

First things first: if Australia had held on to win the Irish Champion Stakes by a neck, instead of getting beaten a neck, nothing would have been said about Joseph O’Brien’s ride. Winners get forgiven everything. He might have even got praised for keeping things simple, not getting in the way of a great horse doing his stuff. And that would have been rubbish. Jumping on bandwagons is never very seemly but any kind of reasonable big-race analysis says this was a stinker.

9.02AM

Mon 8th Sep 2014

Half-Full Or Half-Empty

Maybe it’s a glass half-full or half-empty deal but with the ammunition at his disposal for ‘Champions Weekend’ the ultimate verdict on Irish racing’s new E3.7 million shop-window initiative could come down to how a possible Aidan O’Brien beano this weekend is perceived: is it a good thing, or a bad thing, a neat unifying narrative thread through the two days, or just more evidence of overwhelming Coolmore dominance?

9.00AM

Mon 1st Sep 2014

Starting A Habit

A lot will get found out during ‘Champions Weekend.’ The scene could be set for Australia to definitively justify those “best ever” claims with a spectacular performance. Long-term ambitions to turn the event into the first leg of an international Triple-Crown will get a crucial first examination. And it could also be a fascinating test of just how susceptible to advertising Ireland’s sporting public is when racing tries to lure it through the gates.

9.32AM

Mon 25th Aug 2014

The First Million Is Never Clean

There has been angst aplenty over the BHA’s decision to allow Fergal Lynch ride again in Britain, much of it over whether or not the Irish jockey deserves a second chance after deliberately stopping a horse ten years ago. It’s true that Lynch betrayed appallingly, as true as it’s theoretically correct that jockeys should always try, and be seen to try, just as it’s true that confining races to such ethically pristine jockeys will result in an awful lot of loose horses: looking for perfection in racing involves looking forever.

8.59AM

Mon 18th Aug 2014

Champs Weekend Needs Its Buzz HorseorseH

Since Australia is set to run at York this week it might be presumptuous to look three weeks further ahead and already label him the ‘Irish Champions Weekend’ lynchpin but no amount of PR flim-flam can disguise how so much of the industry’s new shop-window strategy could ultimately revolve around Aidan O’Brien’s colt. Actually, Australia and the weather: and since this is Ireland, pinning hopes on a horse is a far more reliable move than banking on the Met Office.

8.47AM

Mon 11th Aug 2014

Endangered Species

The On-course bookmakers have struggled to adapt to a rapidly changing environment and all indications suggest their days are numbered.

9.39AM

Mon 4th Aug 2014

Keeping Big Picture In Focus

The shouting at Galway came from the stands but the grumbling came from the stable-yard. And on the back of a new pre-race veterinary inspection policy it mightn’t be long before wrangling begins in the corridors of power. What might be worth keeping in mind though is how any such wrangling will appear to the great amorphous outside-world where animal welfare is a perpetually emotive subject.

9.37AM

Mon 28th Jul 2014

The Galway Bubble

The Galway festival is Irish racing’s most distinctive feature. There’s nothing new in pointing that out but it bears repeating because there’s nothing like it elsewhere in the racing world. Galway is a self-perpetuating phenomenon that mostly exists in a self-contained bubble divorced from what happens out on the track which in terms of top sporting quality is mostly irrelevant. And the festival’s ‘USP’ is that it doesn’t matter.

8.37AM

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