Latest Blogs from Vincent Finegan and "My Racing Story"

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

Mon 21st Jul 2014

Turning Up The Volume

Credit where it’s due – once those caulkins were spotted on Volume before the Irish Oaks, the system kicked into play and what had to be done was done. Luca Cumani could talk about being allowed use such shoes around the globe but the rule in Ireland is black and white. Lucky for the authorities though that the eagle-eye who spotted them on Volume in the first place piped-up beforehand: it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if it came to light afterwards - especially if Volume had won. Not that anyone who’d paid into the Curragh would have known much about it.

9.20AM

Mon 14th Jul 2014

Some Information Really Isn’t ‘TMI’

Even ancients pining for a little pre-digital mystery concede that there can’t be Too-Much-Information when it comes to racing. Even though a lot of it can seem superfluous, and there for appearances sake a lot of the time, the option of simply ignoring it is always available. But the state of the going is always of primary interest to both punters and professionals. So why does so much continue to revolve around individual and inevitably subjective interpretations of a series of ground descriptions that can seem as archaic as they are imprecise.

8.37AM

Mon 7th Jul 2014

Avoiding A Colditz Future

Out of all the figures that emerged from a controversial Irish Derby perhaps the most significant was the 86,600 viewing figure for RTE’s coverage of the meeting. That represented less than fifteen per cent of the available audience. Even allowing for the World Cup, Wimbledon and other sporting alternatives on at the same time, it’s a sobering reminder of racing’s place on the sporting spectrum.

9.01AM

Mon 30th Jun 2014

How Cordiale Is The Entente?

All politics is local and although racing politics generally manages to maintain a big-picture consensus when it comes to big-issues such as doping, that ‘friends-together’ veneer still can’t disguise how so much still comes down to what’s on the local ground: a blunt reminder of that reality could be heading for the top echelons of European racing over the potentially divisive issue of the Irish Derby and it’s slipping international prestige.

9.18AM

Mon 23rd Jun 2014

There Will Be Flak

Irish Derbies mostly come in two sizes: either turning into a parade for a dominant champion which winds up getting criticism for being uncompetitive, or ultra-competitive renewals which get criticised for lacking an outstanding performer. And even on those rare occasions when both critical boxes get ticked, there’s flak for too small a field (Generous V Suave Dancer), a wonky clock (St Jovite V Dr Devious) or one outfit being too-dominant (Alamshar V Dalakhani.) That appears to be the Irish Derby’s thing: whatever happens, there will be flak.

9.16AM

Mon 16th Jun 2014

Fighting The Good Fight

Fast-ground loving jump horses already looked to have their days numbered but after the Clonmel carnage that saw five horses killed at one meeting it could be sooner-rather-than-later about those opportunities disappearing completely. Dismissing such incidents in ‘one-of-those-things’ terms isn’t on. If it is a statistical fact that faster ground leads to more fatalities then the industry has to be seen to alter those statistics and the easiest way is to ensure the going never even gets to ‘good.’

9.04AM

Mon 9th Jun 2014

Rewriting The Record Books

Did the fact Ryan Giggs won a lot more medals than George Best make him a better Manchester Utd player? Does the fact Roger Federer has won the most Grand-Slam titles automatically make him tennis’ greatest ever? Definitive answers are impossible but it’s still difficult to argue with stark statistical evidence and how the facts and figures point to unarguable evidence of Aidan O’Brien’s supreme training ability.

8.55AM

Mon 2nd Jun 2014

The Can-Can

It’s the little pictures that impact every day so while the big picture right now may be about classics and corruption sometimes racing loses out on simple things like a can of Coke: specifically the cost of it. In big picture terms this is clearly trivial stuff but since a core strategic ambition for racing is to increase attendance levels at tracks it can hardly be dismissed as irrelevant either.

10.26AM

Mon 26th May 2014

Joining The Stupid Dots

Dimitri Yachvili’s famed rugby life has been notable for an obvious intelligence. The horse that carries the French international’s name has had a mostly mediocre career but is assured a footnote in racing history for the stupidity surrounding him. Without that stupidity it is doubtful the Yachvili case would have even seen the light of day, never mind become a landmark episode.

9.15AM

Latest Blogs from Vincent Finegan and "My Racing Story"

Bar A Fall

Joe Prole's Peashooter

Gowran Fogs up the Gold Cup Picture

The Glass Must Be Half-Empty

To play or not to play

You Get What You Don't Pay For

Hearts And Minds Require A Grip

How Was It For You

Planet Fundamental Contradiction

"Cliff Horses" are not just for Christmas

The Risk/Reward Dilemma

Equine Personality of the Year

Australia is Horse of the Year

Arbitrage

Tell ‘Em Nothin’

What is the problem with common sense?

Is the Cure in the Hair of the Horse?

A Good Horse Always Has You Dreaming

Fist-Bumping The Kids

A Non Starter For Ten

The State of Welfare

It's Getting Exciting

V For Victory

Where to Focus?

Tiptoeing Behind The Babysitters

A Fool And His Money….

Thanks for the Feedback

That Johnny Murtagh Wasn’t A Bad Jockey

Searching for Stardust….

Playing Game On Its Merits

Viva La Revolucion!

Arc Still The Ultimate Prize

Nothing To Hide

A Hell Of A Weekend

Half-Full Or Half-Empty

Starting A Habit

The First Million Is Never Clean

Champs Weekend Needs Its Buzz HorseorseH

Endangered Species

Keeping Big Picture In Focus

The Galway Bubble

Turning Up The Volume

Some Information Really Isn’t ‘TMI’

Avoiding A Colditz Future

How Cordiale Is The Entente?

There Will Be Flak

Fighting The Good Fight

Rewriting The Record Books

The Can-Can

Joining The Stupid Dots

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