Sport of Kings Archives - Page 4 of 12

Sport of Kings

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 »

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 »

MELISSA MARGOLIS MAKES WAVES

October 18, 2018
WHEN THE Gordon Elliott-trained Kuiper Belt landed the valuable Lartigue Hurdle at Listowel last month, it gave fledgling owner Melissa Margolis her biggest success.... 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 »

ABDULAZIZ UPS THE ANTE

October 18, 2018
IT WILL be recalled (see The Phoenix, 29/6/18) that Phoenix Thoroughbreds supremo Amer Abdulaziz pledged this year at Royal Ascot to develop his bloodstock... Read more »

BABY JOSEPH IS IN THE PINK

October 4, 2018
THE SUCCESS of the Joseph O’Brien-trained Baby Pink in a valuable listed race in Galway recently was an interesting one when one delves into... Read more »

GODOLPHIN SPLASHES OUT

October 4, 2018
THE REBUILDING of relations between the behemoths of global racing Coolmore and Godolphin continues apace with mutual support of each entity’s top stallions now... Read more »

PAT KELLY’S COBALT CASE

October 4, 2018
IT HAS been a tough couple of weeks at the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB), with a number of referral cases heard covering assorted... Read more »

GER LYONS’S GRIPE

October 4, 2018
IRISH CHAMPIONS weekend was again deemed a success, with some thrilling finishes, good weather and a few breakthrough Group 1 wins for some of... Read more »

NO LUCK FOR THE WAGGS

September 20, 2018
WHEN THE lowly rated Eight And Bob was declared to run at Navan recently, he was bound to attract interest as the five year... Read more »

JAMIE OSBORNE’S DEADLINE

September 20, 2018
ENGLISH TRAINER Jamie Osborne’s annual pilgrimage to Laytown Races with his enthusiastic owners, The Melbourne 10, bore fruit again when the team bagged three... Read more »

FIXTURE LIST OFF COURSE?

September 20, 2018
AFTER MUCH pondering, Brian Kavanagh’s Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) has released the fixture list for 2019 and it is one that has stimulated plenty... Read more »

TOM QUEALLY UNSADDLED

September 20, 2018
SPARE A thought for jockey Tom Queally, who lost the ride on The Tin Man a few days before the James Fanshawe-trained gelding won... Read more »

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 life... 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 some... 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. It... Read more »

PETER FAHEY’S GOOD GAMBLE

September 6, 2018
A TIP of the hat to Monasterevin trainer Peter Fahey, who recently executed a significant gamble with military precision. Fahey’s newcomer, Gypsy Island, made... 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 odd... 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. The... 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 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 »

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 to... 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 »

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, following... 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 »

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 »

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 »

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 Aidan... 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 »