Article Category: Sport of Kings

HYDE AND SEEKING

May 18, 2016
THERE WERE quite a few Irish connections to the recent Kentucky Derby winner, Nyquist. The superstar colt, unbeaten in eight runs, was bred by... Read more »

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

May 5, 2016
SOME PEOPLE clearly love their job. Take, for example, bookmaker David Power, one of the founders of Paddy Power and father of the company’s... Read more »

LYONS ROAR

May 5, 2016
DUNDALK Racecourse is largely viewed as a well run, progressive enterprise that has become a useful cog in the racing wheel, especially to middle-tier... Read more »

PROFITS UP, STALLIONS DOWN

May 5, 2016
IT’S BEEN a rather mixed month at the Irish National Stud. Barely a week after announcing significant revenue and profit increases for its 2015... Read more »

DECLARED RUNNERS?

May 5, 2016
A COUPLE of names of ‘runners’ were on the lips of members of the board of Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) for similar reasons this... Read more »

AL NAEMI’S ASSETS

April 21, 2016
THE ARRIVAL of Qatari moneybags Mubarak Al Naemi to these shores continues to bring dividends to Horse Racing Ireland who have been eager to... Read more »

KEVIN BLAKE’S CRITICISM

April 21, 2016
THE DECISION by the Turf Club’s Appeals and Referrals Committee to reverse the hefty 30-day ban imposed on Barry Geraghty for the ‘running-and-riding’ of... Read more »

CONNELL’S ITCHY BRITCHES

April 21, 2016
ONE TIME hedge fund supremo Barry Connell is obviously a hard man to please when it comes to jockeys. He recently announced his split... Read more »

DISCIPLINING THE HRI SUITS

April 7, 2016
ELSEWHERE in Simon Coveney’s new Horse Racing Ireland Act 2016, the Bowler Hats have been handed the power to sanction employees of Brian Kavanagh’s... Read more »

BOOKIE’S BUG BLUES

April 7, 2016
BETFAIR, the online betting exchange that merged with Paddy Power in a €10bn deal earlier this year, continues to experience problems with its online... Read more »

SEAN POWER’S SEANAD RACE

April 7, 2016
FIANNA FÁIL councillor for the constituency of Kildare South (Horse Racing Ireland territory), Sean Power – who is also president of the Irish Stablestaff... Read more »

TURF CLUB TRIBULATIONS

April 7, 2016
AN INTERESTING addition to Simon Coveney’s Horse Racing Ireland Act 2016 is a clause which allows Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) to dictate to the... Read more »

Petroceltic shareholders caught in the crossfire

March 24, 2016
THE PURCHASE of 69% of Petroceltic’s $230m borrowings two weeks ago, combined with the appointment of Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton as examiner to... Read more »

WAITING ON CURRAGH’S NEW BOSS

March 24, 2016
THE SEARCH for a new chief executive at the Curragh racecourse continues and there is still no sign of white smoke emanating from Joe... Read more »

IRISH BOOKIES UNDER THE WHIP

March 24, 2016
THE HEAT is being turned up on the betting sector in Ireland. Big time gambling has found itself under the spotlight in recent weeks,... Read more »

JOSEPH O’BRIEN’S NEW JOB

March 24, 2016
AS WAS widely reported in the racing press, after months of speculation, Twitter statements and course changes, heir to the O’Brien fiefdom, Joseph O’Brien,... Read more »

KIEREN FALLON’S RETURN

March 24, 2016
THE ERRANT Kieren Fallon, who has not been sighted on a British or Irish racetrack for over six months, has resurfaced in County Kildare,... Read more »

Secret Gallops

March 9, 2016
SECRECY continues to surround the traditional after racing gallops held last week at the state-owned Leopardstown racecourse for horses engaged to run at Cheltenham.... Read more »

NEW TRACK FOR 2016 AWARDS

March 9, 2016
AFTER CRITICISM regarding the lack of balance on the judging panel handing out the cash prizes and gongs at the Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum-sponsored... Read more »

CHELTENHAM CHOICES

March 9, 2016
WITH THE annual Irish pilgrimage to the Mecca of national hunt racing that is Cheltenham set to begin next week, Goldhawk has the onerous... Read more »

MEDIA RIGHT AND WRONGS

March 9, 2016
THE HOT TOPIC of media rights within Irish racing is set to continue as a divisive factor within John Moloney’s Association of Irish Racecourses... Read more »

RUNNERS READY FOR NEW HRI

February 25, 2016
MAKING IT just in the nick of time, Simon Coveney’s game changing Horse Racing Ireland Act 2015 is now the legislation that will govern... Read more »

TIM HIGGINS’S TWO HORSES

February 25, 2016
IN THE gloomy 2015 Irish thoroughbred industry statistics released by Horse Racing Ireland’s Brian Kavanagh last month, a sector that seems to be heading... Read more »

RUBY WALSH’S ROUGH RIDES

February 25, 2016
CHAMPION National Hunt jockey Ruby Walsh has come in for plenty of criticism after a number of high profile exits on board Willie Mullins-trained... Read more »

BETFAIR BLUES

February 25, 2016
AFTER THE Isolde Goggin-chaired Competition and Consumer Protection Commission approved the €10bn Paddy Power merger with Betfair two months ahead of schedule, the betting... Read more »

Free Lunch

February 11, 2016
THEY SAY there is no such thing as a free lunch, but Joe Keeling’s Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) is handing out complimentary meals to... Read more »

META OSBORNE’S DRUGS PRESCRIPTION

February 11, 2016
OVER A YEAR in the making, the long awaited report by the Irish Thoroughbred Industry Anti-Doping Task Force, chaired by Senior Steward Meta Osborne,... Read more »

CUTTING OFF SIMON COVENEY

February 11, 2016
WHILE Simon Coveney is regarded by followers of the sport of kings as a fairly shrewd operator, his attempt to pull a fast one... Read more »

THE MULLINS FACTOR

February 11, 2016
SPEAKING in the Dáil during the debate on the Horse Racing Ireland Act 2015, which was passed on January 20, Labour’s Willie Penrose called... Read more »

GROUP 1 JOB AT THE CURRAGH

January 28, 2016
NO LESS THAN 19 runners have declared in the race to win the lucrative prize of first place in the state sponsored ‘Irish Racing... Read more »

JOHN MALONE’S EXPANSION

January 28, 2016
CASTLEMARTIN STUD – the 750-acre spread formerly owned by Tony O’Reilly, which was controversially disposed of by AIB bank to land loving American billionaire... Read more »

HUGO PALMER’S MUSCLE PROBLEM

January 28, 2016
EARLIER THIS month at Bowler Hat HQ, Turf Club chief executive Denis Egan had the red carpet, cucumber sandwiches and Ferrero Rocher out for... Read more »

RUBY WALSH WANTS THE MONEY

January 28, 2016
WITHIN the tight circle of Irish Horse Racing, the Walsh family are not known for their meek personality. The adjective ‘outspoken’ tends to be... Read more »

LOOKING UP DOWN UNDER

January 14, 2016
IT’S NOT very often that Coolmore don’t publicise news of a major victory, but that was the case recently when John Magnier’s Australian operation,... Read more »

CILLIAN RYAN DISMOUNTS

January 14, 2016
SWORDLESTOWN STUD, which was purchased by the late Cathal Ryan in 1999 and bequeathed to his son, Cillian Ryan, in 2007, has ceased breeding... Read more »

LUCINDA VS THE BOOKIES

January 14, 2016
RENUA LEADER Lucinda Creighton has been making waves in the racing industry lately with her party’s manifesto, which plays to the horsey set gallery.... Read more »