Article Category: Sport of Kings

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

RTÉ’S RIVALS ENTER THE GATE

January 14, 2016
THE SEISMIC uprooting of Channel 4 Racing as the broadcaster of UK racing’s terrestrial TV rights for more than 30 years, may have knock-on... 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 »

SADDLING UP FOR CURRAGH TOP JOB

December 17, 2015
ADVERTS have appeared for the position of chief executive of Curragh Racecourse Ltd, the private company set up with the assistance of Minister for... Read more »

FAUGHEEN FORCED TO SHARE AWARD

December 17, 2015
THE ANNUAL Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) awards were dished out at Leopardstown last week, with junior minister Tom Hayes in attendance at the ceremony,... Read more »

STABLESTAFF UNDER SCRUTINY

December 17, 2015
THE Irish Stablestaff Association (ISA), which represents the interests of staff working in the thoroughbred racing industry, is currently reviewing its policy as to... Read more »

TURF CLUB GRABS CONCESSIONS

December 17, 2015
SINN FÉIN spokesman on Agriculture Martin Ferris was successful in his amendment to remove a contentious clause in Simon Coveney’s Horse Racing Ireland Act... Read more »

FOXROCK’S RETURN RIDE

December 4, 2015
FOXROCK, the Barry Connell-owned handicapper at the centre of the high-profile Punchestown missing shoes enquiry last May, made his seasonal reappearance at Navan recently.... Read more »

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBOUR-HOOD

December 4, 2015
THE IRISH Harness Racing Association (IHRA) and its chairman, Mark Flanagan, who recently won the battle to stage a trial meeting of its trotters... Read more »

META OSBORNE’S NEW REGIME

December 4, 2015
AN UNUSUAL clause inserted into Simon Coveney’s disputed Horse Racing Ireland Act 2015, is the one that permits the Bowler Hats to form a... Read more »

DERMOT WELD’S NEW NEIGHBOURS

November 20, 2015
RACEHORSE trainer and Curragh resident Dermot Weld, whose Rosewell House yard borders the proposed €55m redevelopment of the Pádraig McManus-managed Curragh racecourse, is not... Read more »

JOSEPH O’BRIEN’S TWEETS

November 20, 2015
IN A BID to “clear things up a bit” amid the speculation surrounding his future plans, ex-Champion Jockey, Joseph O’Brien, recently released a confusing... Read more »

JOE KEELING’S MEDIA MOVE

November 20, 2015
THE ASSOCIATION Of Irish Racecourses (AIR) and Galway racecourse supremo John Moloney have lost the battle to retain control of the all-important media rights... Read more »

GETTING TO THE POINT

November 20, 2015
THERE WAS very little cheer for the Bowler Hats in Simon Coveney’s new Horse Racing Ireland Act 2015, but one battle they did manage... Read more »

AIDAN O’BRIEN’S ‘DUCKS’

November 6, 2015
“THE DUCKS are not in a row.” Aidan O’Brien’s words before unwrapping the thick layers of cotton wool from his star miler, Gleneagles, at... Read more »

BLUE DAY FOR BOWLER HATS

November 6, 2015
THE FINE PRINT of Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney’s new Horse Racing Bill 2015 was unveiled to the public earlier this month and the... Read more »

WINNER ALL RIGHT

November 6, 2015
ONE OF the big winners of Simon Coveney’s new Horse Racing Ireland Bill 2015 is Joe Keeling’s Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), which sees its... Read more »

WILLIE MULLINS’S SMART MOVE

November 6, 2015
CHAMPION trainer Willie Mullins is now operating out of a stable he runs near Irish racing HQ at the Curragh. The remarkably successful handler,... Read more »