HUMBLE PIE FOR HAYES
March 7, 2019
FORMER BETTING industry executive Noel Hayes had to endure an awkward moment recently when offering his punditry insight as a guest in the Racing... Read more »
HUMBLE PIE FOR HAYES
Sport of Kings
Article Category: Sport of Kings
TOM TAAFFE’S TRIBULATIONS
March 7, 2019
TOM TAAFFE’S form-filling skills – or lack thereof – have been put under the spotlight recently. The trainer brought one of his horses, Walking... Read more »
JIM BOLGER’S TWO YEAR OLDS
February 21, 2019
SOME EYEBROWS were raised a few years ago when Jim Bolger sent around 20 of his mares to be covered by little-known stallion Fracas,... Read more »
ANDREW HUGHES’S HICCUP
February 21, 2019
THE BRITISH Horseracing Authority (BHA) offered little room for manoeuvre to a nonplussed Andrew Hughes when he made the trip to Scotland recently. He... Read more »
COOPER CUT LOOSE
February 21, 2019
BRYAN COOPER’S stint as first jockey to Chris Jones was certainly short-lived, with the association coming to an end just before the Dublin Racing... Read more »
MULRYAN TARGETS BALLYMORE
February 21, 2019
COMEBACK KID Sean Mulryan – once again a major player in the national hunt owners’ league – took another step forward recently when he... Read more »
AUBREY McMAHON’S APPEALING BEHAVIOUR
February 7, 2019
AMATEUR JOCKEY Aubrey McMahon obviously felt aggrieved over a five-day ban handed down by the race-day stewards at Tramore following his ride aboard Batcio... Read more »
SHEIKH MOHAMMED’S WEIGHT WATCHERS
February 7, 2019
GOLDOLPHIN, the racing entity of Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum, has had a change of heart over its heavy-handed approach to work riders. Early in... Read more »
TROUBLE AT THE TOTE
February 7, 2019
HORSE RACING Ireland (HRI) recently announced the industry statistics for 2018 and, as expected, the figures pertaining to the betting sector made for unpleasant... Read more »
NICK RUST’S ROUGH RIDE
February 7, 2019
IS THE British Horseracing Authority (BHA) – where Nick Rust cracks the whip – actually managing to bring the sport it is charged with... Read more »
McNAMARA DROPS THE BALL
January 24, 2019
FORMER JOCKEY Andrew McNamara, who combines training with his role on the RTÉ racing team, was recently a guest on Off The Ball’s weekly... Read more »
UPS AND DOWNS FOR COMER
January 24, 2019
IT’S BEEN a mixed start to the year for Luke Comer. The trainer enjoyed an early New Year winner when Mystique Heights won at... Read more »
RICHARD FITZGERALD’S PRIORITIES
January 24, 2019
THE SWITCH of live Irish racing from At The Races (ATR) to Racing TV has generated plenty of negative commentary since the beginning of... Read more »
SOFTLY DOES IT AT LEOPARDSTOWN
January 24, 2019
WITH LITTLE rain forecast for February’s Dublin Racing Festival and with almost unprecedented firm ground conditions for jumps horses at this time of year,... Read more »
PHILIP FENTON’S RETURN
January 10, 2019
NEW YEAR’S Day at Tramore was a significant occasion for trainer Philip Fenton. It saw him register his first success since resuming his training... Read more »
TED TALKS AT TRAMORE
January 10, 2019
TED WALSH had to be at his diplomatic best recently when he was interviewed by the race-day stewards at Tramore over the running and... Read more »
ACCIDENTAL BY NAME…
January 10, 2019
THERE WAS no fairytale ending to the amusing story of Accidental, the Patrick Mullins-owned gelding that made his racecourse debut at Limerick over Christmas.... Read more »
LEOPARDSTOWN’S TOUGH GOING
January 10, 2019
LEOPARDSTOWN’S Christmas Festival was by and large a very successful four days with unseasonally kind weather helping to draw good crowds to witness top-class... Read more »
BARRY CONNELL’S BAD LUCK
December 13, 2018
BARRY CONNELL and his trainer, Alan Fleming, are finding winners scarce these days and it was presumably frustrating to be stripped of one they... Read more »
JOHN BUTLER’S BANJAXED HORSE
December 13, 2018
NEWMARKET-BASED Irish trainer John Butler has found himself in hot water with the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), which has suspended his trainer’s licence for... Read more »
MARK WALSH’S MISTAKE
December 13, 2018
MARK WALSH, the expected heir to the throne as number one jockey to JP McManus, was not the darling of punters recently after he... Read more »
MICK O’LEARY’S CLEAN SWEEP
December 13, 2018
GIGGINSTOWN HOUSE Stud has taken more steps towards total domination of the jumps game in recent weeks. This was particularly evident when Michael O’Leary’s... Read more »
GOING GETS TOUGH AT GOFFS
November 29, 2018
THESE ARE testing times for a lot of people in the bloodstock industry and breeders were recently reminded that there is no demand at... Read more »
HENRY BEEBY’S HEADACHE
November 29, 2018
IT IS not only breeders who took a hiding at the sales as the reduction in demand clearly hit the auction houses. Turnover at... Read more »
BRYAN COOPER’S LATEST CHANCE
November 29, 2018
BRYAN COOPER’S career as a jockey is sometimes compared to a rollercoaster ride and the Kerryman could find himself on the way back up... Read more »
CRISTINA PATINO’S NINE NAGS
November 29, 2018
WHEN A flat yearling is sold at public auction, it qualifies for a programme of two-year-old maiden races the following year, restricted to horses... Read more »
LUKE COMER’S COLTS
November 15, 2018
LUKE COMER’S long-running quest to train a winner continues, but the developer has upped his game recently, spending freely on fresh blood. At the... Read more »
WHIPPING UP A STORM
November 15, 2018
AS ANIMAL rights escalate further up the agenda, it looks like racing’s culture is going to have to get its house in order. The... Read more »
ELLIOTT BACKS SAMCRO
November 15, 2018
SO, WHAT to do with Samcro? Hailed by Davy Russell last year as the second coming, trainer Gordon Elliott fanned the flames of the... Read more »
JIM MARTIN’S HEADACHE
November 15, 2018
ANOTHER all-weather track is on the cards for Ireland, with plans at an advanced stage for an artificial racing surface to be installed at... Read more »
GER LYONS HITS OUT
November 1, 2018
THE DRY autumn is taking its toll on jumps tracks at the moment as they cannot risk watering the ground at this time of... Read more »
O’BRIEN’S REDUNDANT REFERRAL
November 1, 2018
JOSEPH O’BRIEN found himself at the centre of one of the most pointless enquiries in the recent history of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board... Read more »
DOWN A ROYAL MESS
November 1, 2018
WHAT TO make of the Down Royal fiasco? The clash of business and sport looks set to leave some casualties, but confusion reigns. What... Read more »
ELLIOTT IS WELL OFF THE PACE
November 1, 2018
IT SEEMS Gordon Elliott may already have accepted defeat in this season’s leading trainer title race. A slow start to the current season sees... Read more »
CONROY’S FLASHY PROFIT
October 18, 2018
WHILE THE moolah being splashed out at Goffs showed that the going is very good these days, the market for bloodstock remains selective and... Read more »
BHA CRACKS THE WHIP
October 18, 2018
PATRICK MULLINS found himself the subject of some unwanted attention recently, when his winning ride aboard his father’s Rathvinden in the National Hunt Chase... Read more »