Latest Blogs from Vincent Finegan and "My Racing Story"

Racing loves rumours

There was no part-3 to the Paul Kimmage racing expose in Sunday’s Irish Independent but instead the investigative journalist resorted to a tit-for-tat exchange with several racing personalities that had questioned his logic in using Stephen Mahon to further advance his claims of widespread doping in horse racing.

11.50AM

Louise Lyons

I grew up on The Wirral near Liverpool and my parents have a farm there on which my mother runs a livery yard. Myself and my two sisters learned to ride on ponies and later I got into showing horses and then eventing. My father is from County Tyrone and his own father was involved with horses and greyhounds. I reached a good level in eventing and, as I had an Irish passport through my father, I competed for Ireland at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing which was a memorable experience.

4.28PM

The Neverending Story

Paul Kimmage’s ‘part 2’ of the Stephen Mahon story published in last weekend’s Sunday Independent was very disappointing on several different fronts. Firstly, it was billed as the piece that would lift the lid on the drugs issue within racing but instead focussed almost entirely on the relationship between the IHRB’s head of anti doping Dr Lynn Hillyer and a key witness in the animal welfare case against Mahon.

12.23PM

Shane O'Callaghan

I'm from Keady in Armagh. I always grew up around horses and ponies with my father and grandfather. I'd say from the age of three or four all I wanted to do was be a jockey, get on a horse and see how fast it could go. I learned to ride through my grandfather - three or four years on ponies bareback which is obviously a big help now when it comes to balance. Whenever I left school, I worked on Saturdays for John Woods on the outskirts of Armagh. Then I ended up going to CAFRE (College of Agriculture Food & Rural Enterprise) in Enniskillen and on the summer holidays I went on work placement to Lady Jane Gillespie. I ended up working there for nearly a year and got great experience. Mattie Bowes was there at the time and It was great to learn off him as well. I was also riding for Paddy Fegan when he had his training licence.

9.50AM

Coincidence or conspiracy

I’ve known Stephen Mahon on and off for over twenty years and, despite the public perception of him, I find him an honest and sincere individual. In the aftermath of his four years suspension by the IHRB for the abuse of animals in his care last year I had a number of long telephone conversations with him.

12.58PM

Patrick Harty

When my father and I became joint-licence holders last May I became the fifth generation of the Harty family to be a licenced trainer in Ireland so it was certainly a proud moment. I suppose as I’ve got older I’ve become more aware of the rich history of our family in horseracing, and in equestrian pursuits more generally, and more conscious of what our name means to people and what it stands for.

4.56PM

Todd video the latest stain on racing’s reputation

A video which circulated on social media over the weekend of Mark Todd beating a horse with a stick to make it enter a water obstacle on an eventing course is utterly abhorrent. The decorated New Zealand-born equestrian champion turned racehorse trainer has issued a statement of apology which included the following:

12.44PM

Stuart Crawford

My family were always interested in horses. With George Bryson being my grandfather, I would have gone to the Banbridge Sales, gone hunting ,gone to pony club, events and horse trials. I was always surrounded by horses and there was always that interest there. Hunting, cross country and eventing was the natural progression.

9.28AM

Mullins Domination almost complete

Despite the obvious enjoyment of watching a wonderful weekend of high quality jumping action at the Dublin Racing Festival it still has the feel of a set of trials for the bigger days to come at Cheltenham.

8.04AM

Richie Condon

I’m from Conna in east Cork and my family are dairy farmers there. Davy Condon is a first cousin of mine and Paul Townend is also related to me. Liam Burke’s yard is just two miles down the road and I started riding ponies there with Liam’s son Johnny who is the same age as me. I rode about twenty winners in pony-racing and did my Leaving Cert before heading over to Britain where I was apprenticed to Brendan Powell. I rode on the Flat for a couple of seasons and had two winners from about fifty rides before taking out my conditional licence to ride over jumps.

4.17PM

Thyestes a template for success

It was great to see a packed Gowran Park last week for Thyestes Day. The midweek fixture has traditionally been popular with National Hunt fans who travel in big numbers from all over the south east and with covid restrictions lifted only days before this year’s event it was most reassuring to see crowds flock back to racing.

10.34AM

Joanne O'Riordan

I'm a sports columnist in The Irish Times and I was also part of RTE's coverage of the Tokyo Paralympic Games. I was born without all of my limbs in a rare condition known as Total Amelia - I am one of seven people in the world born this way. When I was 15, I campaigned on behalf of people with disabilities in Ireland who were facing a budget cut by the then Taoiseach Enda Kenny. The cut was reversed and I got to do a series of things - I got to go on The Late Late Show, and from that I went over to the United Nations in New York and gave a talk on technology for people with disabilities on the week of my 16th birthday.

9.53AM

Shishkin V Energumene was sporting perfection

Saturday’s epic Clarence House Chase was a triumph on so many levels. First and foremost it demonstrated how horse racing at its very best is a match for any top quality sport in terms of both drama and spectacle. Four minutes and sixteen seconds of pure joy. The proven best taken on by the potential best with no quarter given and both parties coming out of the contest with their reputations enhanced is all you can hope for in any sporting encounter.

11.22AM

Melanie Horsman

I grew up in Co Galway and my father rode and later trained point-to-pointers, so horses were all around me from an early age. Working with horses in some capacity was never not an option. I remember finishing my Leaving Cert on a Wednesday and by the following Monday I had started a job riding out in a yard.

5.14PM

King of the Coups

People who follow horse racing generally get the bug in one of two ways. They either get involved through a love for the horses and the spectacle of seeing supreme athletes compete or they are initially drawn in by the lure of gambling and the intrigue that surrounds that aspect of the game.

1.41PM

Marshall Watson

I didn't really have much say about getting into racing! Dad (Keith Watson) has held the licence for 47 years now. He took over from his uncle Archie Watson who trained Flashy Boy among other good horses back in the 1970s. I'm Armagh through and through - being an only child there is probably more responsibility to stay around and do your bit. I always like to say I have learned from my own pocket and my own mistakes. I think that is sometimes the best way of doing it.

9.52AM

Annual Pilgrimage

Last week entries were released for three of the feature races at the Cheltenham Festival - Champion Chase, Ryanair Chase and Gold Cup. As usual Willie Mullins has a host of contenders for each race, almost one quarter of the entire entries are from Closutton, but his practice of making multiple entries for each of his star performers must have some of his owners scratching their heads.

10.44AM

Paddy O'Hanlon

I’m from Glasnevin in Dublin but my father had a farm in Co Meath and he had horses and ponies and greyhounds there. I spent plenty of time following him around and always had an interest in the animals. I went to the sales with him as he bred a few horses and still does to this day.

10.19AM

New Year, New Beginnings

The New Year offers hope of a new beginning for us all. Whether we set ourselves new goals or promise ourselves we won’t make the same mistakes we made before there is always a sense of optimism at this time of year that things will get better.

10.40AM

Derek McGrath

I'm from Dungarvan in Waterford. I suppose I was bred into racing, my father (David J McGrath) was an amateur jockey and then a trainer, and on the other side my grandfather would always have done a bit of hunting and owned a few racehorses himself.

9.40AM

James McAuley

It was great to finish the year on a good note when Dalvey won last Friday. That made it twenty winners for the calendar year and fourteen of them have come on the all-weather at Dundalk which is only forty minutes in the lorry from Hilltop Stables.

10.45AM

Racing would be lost without Rachael

Drugging horses to go faster, nobbling horses to go slower, neglecting horses, disrespecting dead horses, inhumane slaughter of healthy horses, jockeys bullyiing jockeys, jockeys suing jockeys, owners suing trainers. Racing has spent 2021 lurching from one PR disaster to the next, yet as the year draws to a close Rachael Blackmore’s achievements have managed to paper over all the cracks and give the impression that it wasn’t such a bad year for the sport after all.

1.08PM

Tommy Dowling

I'm from Baltinglass, Co Wicklow. I actually dropped out of school to do a plumbing apprenticeship with John Lennon who trained a few horses down the road from us. He always had a few horses knocking about. I started off with him as a plumber and the plumbing then went a little bit quiet, so I did an odd morning mucking out for him. Eventually I was thrown up on a horse one day - I never started riding until I was 16 or 17 and we took it from there.

1.28PM

Unsatisfactory conclusion to Frost/Dunne case

Last weekend I watched the thoroughly enjoyable new Dettori documentary. The big takeout for me was that even the world’s most successful jockey has on occasions struggled with his mental health.

1.11PM

Mark McDonagh

I’m 20 years of age and from Cratloe, near Bunratty, in Co Clare. I’m in my third year of a degree in business studies at UL and thankfully I’m able to combine that with my riding career. The university is very supportive regarding students who are also athletes as they facilitate me as much as possible with access to the facilities on the sports campus to keep fit and being able to move college work around racing every week. I’m actually doing exams this week and then I’ll be looking forward to the busy racing schedule around Christmas

12.30PM

Racing's ups and downs

For the third weekend in a row National Hunt racing entertained us like few other sports can. The drama dial was turned to max as plot-twist after plot-twist kept us both entertained and baffled in equal measure on another enthralling weekend of horse racing.

1.22PM

Jerry Hannon

I was born and reared in a town with a racecourse, I was lucky I suppose! When I was growing up in Listowel there was just a September festival. I recall it was a five-day festival from Monday to Friday and all the schools in the area closed. We got a half-day on Friday for the festival and we weren't back until the following Monday week. For me it was an early Christmas.

10.12AM

Honeysuckle becoming a real legend of the sport

For the second week in a row the National Hunt action on the track delivered a much-needed shot in the arm for the sport. Sunday’s Grade 1 action at Fairyhouse once again showed why jump racing is on a different level to its Flat equivalent.

1.11PM

Conor Maxwell

I’m from Ballyboughal in north Co Dublin and, although my own family weren’t into horses, just a mile up the road a man called Tommy Stafford had ponies and that was the starting point for me. I used to regularly go up to Stafford’s after school and it became like a second home to me. I began riding horses and point-to-pointers there and started to go out hunting with the Ward Union and the Fingal Harriers. Tommy’s son Paul is a trainer and I’ve ridden plenty of winners for him over the years.

10.25AM

National Hunt racing is a sport to be proud of

Last weekend’s racing action was a real shot in the arm for the sport following the previous week’s drugs raid. Performances like A Plus Tard, Bob Olinger, Bravemansgame, Buzz and Hollow Games - 11/1 the accum for the after-timers - show why horse racing, and in particular National Hunt racing, is such a wonderful sport and spectacle.

11.30AM

Siobhan Rutledge

My family would have been involved in racing before I was born. My dad, Ger Rutledge, trained a few point-to-point horses and he was an amateur jockey himself. My mother's side of the family were all interested in the breeding aspect. My grandmother Joan used to breed horses, so I was kind of bred into it from a young age.

8.26AM

Drugs in racing back in the spotlight following farm raid

Initial reports of last week’s Monasterevin farm raid by the joint forces of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and An Garda Siochana - later joined by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board’s anti-doping unit - gave the impression that Jim Bolger’s doomsday prophecy had come to pass. The can of worms Bolger had been telling us about for over a year had been found and was now well and truly opened.

12.32PM

Adrian Murray

I have a dry stock farm in Rathowen Co Westmeath and my initial involvement with horses would have been in showjumping and eventing. I competed as a showjumper and then I got into sourcing young horses to sell on to clients in America.

2.45PM

No Blog this week

There will be no new blog on the website this week as Vincent Finegan is away on annual leave.

9.02PM