Latest Irish sports news headlines | The Phoenix Magazine

Sport of Kings

DREAL DEAL DELIVERS

August 7, 2025

DREAL DEAL, a horse with an interesting past and who was once trained by Ronan McNally, returned to something like his best form... Read more »

Ed Dunlop David Dunsdon Sarah Lynam Rebecca May Wayne Hassett Eoin O'Brien Michael Burke Aine O’Connor Ashroe Diamond Thomand O’Mara Peter Keatley Timmy Hyde Coolmore All About Sunday Colin Keane Ronan Whelan JP McManus Jessica Harrington Dundalk Racecourse Paul Hensey Irish National Hunt Horse-racing Doping Paddy Walsh Tom Kelly Suspension

PHILIP ROTHWELL’S ALL-CLEAR

August 7, 2025

PHILIP ROTHWELL also made headlines at Ballinrobe recently, albeit for all the wrong reasons. His charge, Coolboy Christie, owned by the Geesala Racing... Read more »

KIA’S CONSISTENT FORM

August 7, 2025

HISTORY OFTEN repeats itself and ‘Glorious Goodwood’ – or not so glorious this year – once again saw the big-spending owners of Amo... Read more »

STILL PURRING ALONG

July 24, 2025

THE AMENDED result of Down Royal’s Laura Nicholas Handicap last month raised a few eyebrows and, not surprisingly, there was quite the kerfuffle... Read more »

COLIN KEANE’S ROUGH RIDE

July 24, 2025

JUDDMONTE’S NEW retained rider Colin Keane was the latest rider to fall foul of the British Horseracing Authority’s whip review committee, resulting in... Read more »

DARRAGH O’LOUGHLIN’S ‘ACTIONS’

July 24, 2025

IRISH HORSE Racing Regulatory Board (IHRB) chief executive Darragh O’Loughlin has revealed in the 2024 IHRB annual report that “significant actions” have been... Read more »

KAVANAGH’S POOL GAME

July 10, 2025

CURRAGH BOSS Brian Kavanagh was one of the few “delighted with the number of runners” in the recent Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby... Read more »

WHIP (NOT) SMART

July 10, 2025

GROUP ONE winning jockey Gary Carroll was left in the doldrums after his Royal Ascot victory aboard the Joe Murphy-trained Cercene in the... Read more »

FAST CARS AND HORSES

July 10, 2025

SOME HEAVY going on the tarmac for a couple of Irish jockeys recently. Four-time UK champion jockey Oisín Murphy was fined £70,000 and... Read more »

OLLIE’S ARMY

June 26, 2025

IT WAS just like old times recently when the Magnier family plus its Coolmore entourage teamed up with one Ollie Sangster for racecourse... Read more »

COLIN KEANE’S ASCOT CARD

June 26, 2025

JOCKEY Colin Keane’s new retainer with Juddmonte got off to the best start with a facile victory aboard the John and Thady Gosden-trained... Read more »

MAGNIER’S NEW WORLD

June 12, 2025

DISCONTENT WITH Coolmore’s near stranglehold on Irish racing had been a talking point at bloodstock sales in recent seasons but that has all... Read more »

CURRAGH’S HEAVY GOING

June 12, 2025

CURRAGH RACECOURSE head honcho Brian Kavanagh struggled to find some good going wherever he could among the attendance figures after the recent underwhelming... Read more »

TONY MULLINS’S MEMORIES

May 29, 2025

EARLIER THIS month, Tony Mullins – brother of Willie – failed to overturn a Workplace Relations Commission award of a chunky €86,000 made... Read more »

TED WALSH’S WOES

May 29, 2025

Ted Walsh – the trainer, pundit and patriarch of the Walsh family of racing TV presenters – was back in hot water with... Read more »

MAGNIER ON THE ROPES

May 15, 2025

IF LEINSTER’S European semi-final exit to Northampton was a bona fide sporting shock, the drubbing handed out to John Magnier and the gang... Read more »

McGARVEY’S MOVE

May 15, 2025

JODY McGARVEY signed off on his riding career with a third place aboard the well-supported Willie Mullins-trained beaten favourite Mirazur West in Punchestown’s... Read more »

REBECCA’S FAIRYTALE

May 1, 2025

HAITI COULEURS, trained by Rebecca Curtis, showed his rivals a clean pair of heels when running away with Ireland’s richest national hunt race,... Read more »

WILLIE’S WIN

May 1, 2025

EVEN THOUGH Dan Skelton had led Willie Mullins going into the final day of the UK National Hunt Championship at Sandown, there was... Read more »

COOLMORE SHUFFLE

April 17, 2025

THE SQUIRE of Coolmore, John Magnier, and his team recently undertook a little international jockey juggling, with Ryan Moore jetting Down Under to... Read more »

PATRICK MULLINS’S MOUNTS

April 17, 2025

AMATEUR RIDER Patrick Mullins left his dismal Cheltenham form behind when winning on three of his five mounts at the Aintree festival, all... Read more »

TWOMEY’S CHALLENGE

April 17, 2025

IT WILL be recalled (see The Phoenix 12/7/24) that handler Paddy Twomey found himself on the end of some surprising criticism last season... Read more »

SEAN DAVIS’S DOUBLE

April 3, 2025

PART-TIME jockey and now trainer Sean Davis had waited more than two years to train his first winner but he landed a double... Read more »

POOR PATRICK MULLINS

April 3, 2025

AMATEUR RIDER Patrick Mullins has had a few recent setbacks in his quest to ride a winner at every UK National Hunt course.... Read more »

CHELTENHAM CHALLENGES

March 20, 2025

THERE WERE plenty of interesting match-ups at Cheltenham last week, notably reigning champion Galopin Des Champs failing in his attempt to win three... Read more »

ERIC’S APPEAL

March 20, 2025

FOLLOWING THE lacklustre run of Mount Ferns in Clonmel last month, the race-day stewards clamped down and fined trainer Eric McNamara €6,000, suspended... Read more »

DOUG TAYLOR’S FORM BOOK

March 6, 2025

GOLDHAWK’S OLD pal Doug Taylor must have been watching the action at Fairyhouse closely last month when Great Attitude landed a monumental Fairyhouse... Read more »

ICY’S INSIGHTS

March 6, 2025

ONLINE PUNDIT Icy – aka Gearoid Norris – recently held court through his Point Blank Sunday podcast with on-course bookmaker Colm White. Thousands... Read more »

HARRY’S HEAVY GOING

February 20, 2025

THE MOST surprising aspect of the High Court action by popular Co Louth trainer Harry Rogers against the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB)... Read more »

TIM HUSBANDS DISMOUNTS

February 20, 2025

TIM HUSBANDS (MBE no less) rode off into the sunset from Leopardstown following the recent Dublin Racing Festival (DRF). Husbands had been in... Read more »

NICHOLLS NOBBLED AGAIN

February 6, 2025

THE RECORD €740,000 purchase from the Alan and Gemma Brown’s dispersal sale at Tattersalls – Caldwell Potter – was a beaten odds-on favourite... Read more »

WILLIE MULLINS’S CHASER SUPREME

February 6, 2025

AT THE Dublin Racing Festival, where the target of 18,500 pre-booked tickets for each of the two days was not reached, the crowds... Read more »

HUSBANDS’ CUSTOMERS

January 23, 2025

LEOPARDSTOWN BOSS Tim Husbands and his team have decided it’s time to “improve customer experience” by making the 2025 Dublin Racing Festival (DRF)... Read more »

LONDONOFFICECALLIN FLIES HIGH

January 23, 2025

HIGH-FLYING racehorse Londonofficecallin – a 23-times-raced maiden when leaving Evanna McCutcheon’s yard – won his seventh race from a dozen starts at Punchestown’s... Read more »

HAYES BACK ON TRACK

January 23, 2025

FOLLOWING HIS 15-month suspension for failing to take proper care of a horse, Patrick Joseph Hayes has trained his first winner since being... Read more »

DINEEN V NICHOLLS

January 9, 2025

CORK PUNTER and racing pundit Johnny Dineen recently expressed his opinions on social media regarding the lack of success of the Paul Nicholls... Read more »