Latest Irish sports news headlines | The Phoenix Magazine

Sport of Kings

MICK O’LEARY OFFLOADS TO YANKS

September 6, 2018

MICK O’LEARY certainly isn’t getting soft about his horses as he gets older; two old Gigginstown stalwarts who won’t be retiring to a... Read more »

BARRY CONNELL’S NEW STRATEGY

September 6, 2018

BARRY CONNELL has shuffled his pack again and has dispensed with the services of his former retained jockey, Denis O’Regan. The pair enjoyed... Read more »

DEREK MCGRATH’S BIG PICTURE

September 6, 2018

THE FACT that the Curragh Racecourse has stayed open for business while being developed may not have been a bad idea in hindsight.... Read more »

COOLMORE’S ONE THAT GOT AWAY

August 23, 2018

It’s not often the Coolmore team get it spectacularly wrong about a horse, but even the best of us are prone to the... Read more »

MARTIN’S BASE ON THE MARKET

August 23, 2018

Tony Martin’s trying season could take a turn for the worse next month if Arodstown Stables, his current training base, sells at auction.... Read more »

TESTING TIMES AT THE TOTE

August 23, 2018

When Horse Racing Ireland announced its half-year statistics last month, it did so before the Galway festival – a week that serves as... Read more »

ANYONE FOR KOREA?

August 23, 2018

Willie Mullins has never been afraid to push the boundaries. He famously sent Blackstairmountain to Japan to plunder over €½m by winning the... Read more »

NICK BRADLEY’S BAD BATCH

August 9, 2018

GORDON ELLIOTT’S first venture into training two year olds last year was a successful one, especially when the bunch assembled by syndicate specialist... Read more »

CHARLES BYRNES’S GALWAY GLOOM

August 9, 2018

CHARLES BYRNES is a trainer the bookies fear when the money is down, but the shrewd Limerick man found the going tough at... Read more »

TOUGH GOING FOR O’BRIEN

August 9, 2018

TRAINER EXTRAORDINAIRE Aidan O’Brien is unaccustomed to a downturn in the form of his expensive string, but the Ballydoyle maestro has recently had... Read more »

WILLIE MULLINS’S STRATEGY

August 9, 2018

IT WAS a beano of a week for Willie Mullins in Galway, winning the feature race on three of the first four days,... Read more »

TARGETING SEAMIE HEFFERNAN

July 26, 2018

A RIDER who felt the venom of keyboard warriors recently was Seamie Heffernan when Coral Beach, trained by his boss Aidan O’Brien, was... Read more »

CAN WELD BOUNCE BACK AT GALWAY?

July 26, 2018

WITH GALWAY on the horizon and the economy on the up, the skies around Ballybrit are likely to resemble Vietnam with the constant... Read more »

JOOSTE’S ONGOING OFFLOADS

July 26, 2018

MARKUS JOOSTE, the South African busted tycoon who was welcomed into the Coolmore fold some years ago, continues to dissolve his bloodstock interests,... Read more »

MATT MiTCHELL’S LONG RACE

July 26, 2018

INCOMING Tattersalls Ireland chief executive Matt Mitchell knows all about the ups and downs of mergers and acquisitions. Having been the casualty of... Read more »

WILLIE MULLINS’S BELLE DU JOUR

July 12, 2018

THE IRISH Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) senior flat handicapper Garry O’Gorman has come in for criticism after a minor race at Leopardstown where... Read more »

KEVIN MANNING’S MISTAKE

July 12, 2018

NORMALLY when a rider appears to ease up prematurely in a race and loses a placing (possibly as a result of those actions),... Read more »

AFTER DESSIE SCAHILL

July 12, 2018

AFTER NEARLY half a century as Ireland’s chief race commentator, Dessie Scahill will call his last race at the end of this month.... Read more »

LUKE COMER JNR SHOWS THE WAY

July 12, 2018

AS HIS father’s lengthy quest to train a winner continues, Luke Comer Jnr got his own training career off to a decent start... Read more »

WINDING UP XENOBIA

July 12, 2018

THERE WERE a lot of surprised punters in Fairyhouse last weekend when the Bill Farrell-trained 12/1 shot Xenobia rode to victory ahead of... Read more »

KEN BOLGER’S TAX BILL

June 28, 2018

KEN BOLGER, a nephew of trainer Jim Bolger, found himself on the receiving end of some unwanted attention from the dreaded taxman. As... Read more »

GOOD AND BAD AT GOFFS

June 28, 2018

HUGE SUMS of money were again being splashed around for national hunt ‘playthings’ at the Goffs Land Rover Sale earlier this month and... Read more »

FRANKIE DETTORI’S CONTRACT

June 28, 2018

THERE IS little love lost between Frankie Dettori and his previous employers at Al Shaqab Racing. Dettori was retained by Sheikh Joaan Al... Read more »

AMER ABDULAZIZ CHALLENGES JOHN MAGNIER

June 28, 2018

THE LUXEMBOURG registered thoroughbred investment fund Phoenix Thoroughbreds and its associated personnel have been generous in providing newsworthy snippets this year – and... Read more »

LUKE COMER GETTING CLOSER

June 13, 2018

THE QUEST by Luke Comer to train a winner continues, though it seems he is getting closer to his Holy Grail and it... Read more »

MAGNIER’S MERCHANT BANKER

June 13, 2018

JOHN MAGNIER and his investors have never been shy to take a major punt on a horse and it will be interesting to... Read more »

TWITTER CALM AT IHRB

June 13, 2018

FOLLOWING the Paul Townend incident at Punchestown, when the jockey threw away an almost certain victory aboard Al Boum Photo, the Irish Horseracing... Read more »

BIN SUROOR’S BAD BATCH

June 13, 2018

THIS YEAR’S Epsom Derby was a much needed triumph for Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum’s global racing entity Godolphin. While morale within the camp... Read more »

HARTERY IN AND HARMAN OUT

May 31, 2018

THE IRISH and British racing industries are closely linked and as the latter says goodbye to a chairman, we welome a new one... Read more »

ELLIOTT’S SLOW START

May 31, 2018

GORDON ELLIOTT will surely be glad to see the back of May. The trainer has experienced something that must feel rather alien to... Read more »

WILL WILLIE NEED A NEW VET?

May 31, 2018

THE FUTURE of Tim Brennan as a racehorse vet now lies in the hands of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). This follows news... Read more »

SHEIKH FAHAD FLEXES HIS MUSCLES

May 31, 2018

GER LYONS has never been shy about airing his opinions but a failure to bite his tongue may have cost him dearly after... Read more »

DID HRI JUMP TOO EARLY?

May 17, 2018

THE CONTROVERSIAL media rights deal that saw Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) hand over the keys to Irish racing to Satellite Information Services (SIS)... Read more »

HERE COME THE GIRLS

May 17, 2018

THE PAST 10 years have been a golden era for female jockeys. Having proved their worth against the boys and earned the right... Read more »

ALAN FLEMING’S LOADED NEW OWNERS

May 17, 2018

CURRAGH TRAINER Alan Fleming is generally more associated with his national hunt string, being more or less a private trainer for Barry Connell.... Read more »

JOHN MAGNIER’S TRIPLE CROWN TARGET

May 17, 2018

WHILE OUT of luck in Churchill Downs when a quagmire of a track played its part in Mendelssohn finishing dead last in the... Read more »