Article Category: Sport of Kings

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 a... 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 Nakayama... 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 Nick... 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 Galway,... 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, and... 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 beaten... 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 hum... 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 one... 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 when... 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 the... 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), then... 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. Scahill’s... 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 a... 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 a... 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 the... 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 wouldn’t... 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 see... 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 will... 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 this... 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 that... 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 Qatar... 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) took... 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 to... 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. The... 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 Kentucky... Read more »

WINNERS AND LOSERS AT PUNCHESTOWN

May 3, 2018
THE PUNCHESTOWN festival was always going to be exciting this year with the Willie Mullins/Gordon Elliott head-to-head dominating the build-up but Paul Townend did... Read more »

CON MARNANE’S BREEZE DOWN

May 3, 2018
FANS OF Goldhawk know of the trials and tribulations of the breeze up sales season and the perils of this sector were evident at... Read more »

INGE D’HAESE’S ROUGH RIDE

May 3, 2018
VETERINARY officer of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) Inge D’Haese has ruffled feathers among the training ranks, in particular with a couple of... Read more »

PAUL HENSEY’S NEW GIG

May 3, 2018
FORMER CURRAGH Racecourse manager Paul Hensey has bounced back with a new gig after being squeezed out of his previous role when current chief... Read more »

MARK FLOOD’S FITZWILLIAM FANS

April 19, 2018
FITZWILLIAM RACING was a name that cropped up a few times in the winner’s enclosure last year and the investment syndicate, set up by... Read more »