Latest Blogs from Vincent Finegan and "My Racing Story"

Financial irregularities at IHRB

The Mazars report into financial irregularities at the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) was finally published last week, some 16 months after it was first commissioned. Despite the long-drawn out process that got us to this point, it does finally give clarity on many aspects of the carryon at IHRB and helps us fill in some notable blanks when trying to decipher what actually happened.

10.29AM

Conor Maxwell

I'm originally from Ballyboughal Co Dublin and I got into horses through a neighbour, Tommy Stafford - his son Paul trains. I started riding ponies for them and did a bit of hunting with the Fingal Harriers and Ward Union over the years. I came up through the ranks that way. I started riding track horses and point-to-pointers for Paul when he went on to train horses. As a young lad I always wanted to be a carpenter or something. Being a jockey was something I kind of fell into. I had no background in horses and none of my family were into horses. I just got hooked on them through the Staffords. I couldn't wait to get out of school. I wasn't bad at it but it just wasn't for me. I got bitten by the bug and kept at it.

2.14PM

The best is probably yet to come

Only once before in my lifetime can I recall hype around an American horse race to match the level we saw in the build up to last weekend’s Breeders’ Cup Classic.

10.19AM

Timing of Shark Hanlon Appeal verdict ill judged

In 2018 the Turf Club rebranded its regulatory arm as the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB), but in reality nothing changed. How could it? The new company had all the same rules, the same traditions, the same ethos and all the same personnel.

9.47AM

Ian Donoghue

I'm from Dunshaughlin, Co Meath and all of mam's side of the family would have been horsey. Her uncle was Andy Lynch who trained and he was Head Travelling Lad for Noel Meade, so we grew up with ponies at Andy's. Then my brother Keith and I started riding out for Pat Martin. Granda would have harrowed the gallops at Fairyhouse and we would have gone down on Saturdays with him and looked at the likes of Paul Carberry, Ross and Barry Geraghty. We always wanted to be them! I got too big, but Keith is doing a good job.

2.12PM

Advertising ban presents a major headache for horse racing

The long-awaited Gambling Regulation Bill has finally passed through all stages in the Dáil and is set to come into law in the coming weeks.

10.30AM

Cesarewitch prize money conundrum

When I see soccer clubs spending hundreds of millions on players, the amounts can certainly seem obscene, but there is an underlying logic to it. If the clubs are to compete at the highest level both domestically and in Europe they need the best players and the rewards for success can far outweigh the costs.

10.33AM

Dr Noel Cogan

I'm from Kells, Co Meath. I started off life big into sport. I played gaelic football around north Meath, I played in Croke Park in the All-Ireland Colleges. I played rugby in the winter, but I got massive injuries. I was in America in Ann Arbor, University of Michigan and I did a thesis on concussion. It was to do with American Football really. When I came home, I discovered I couldn't play any sport and I was still crazy for sport. I decided I would start riding horses and I was useless at it! I got falls and everything, so eventually I bought a bit of land outside the town where I live, a good bit of land and I built boxes.

9.24PM

Eight is the magic number

Earlier this year Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) published a five-year strategic plan outlining their objectives for the industry between now and the end of 2028.

10.16AM

Selena Kearns

I'm from Mooncoin in Co Kilkenny. Horses were not in my background whatsoever. My mum, God rest her, brought me to pony riding lessons when I was little. Teenage years came and the ponies kind of got forgotten about. Then I just took it up again out of the blue when I was about 19 - it was my first time sitting on a racehorse. I went to Henry de Bromhead's for a couple of weeks. From there, I worked for Kevin Prendergast on the Curragh. I was there for about six months, but I got very homesick. I was the only girl there at that time. I was riding out in both yards. It was different back then to now. After Kevin Prendergast, I went to Eoin Griffin in Slieverue. It was close to home and I was able to get lifts there and go home again in the evening. I stayed there for the best part of 12 years. Eoin had a lot of faith in me riding work and I rode work on all the good horses. I worked with Johnny Murtagh, Nina Carberry and Barry Geraghty up the Old Vic. Back in those days, they were my heroes. I went racing a lot as well, I took the horses to the races.

8.29AM

City Of Troy

City Of Troy galloping around Southwell last Friday was fascinating on many levels. Firstly, it showed us once again the unrivalled attention to detail and meticulous preparation that goes into these top class horses at Ballydoyle.

9.00AM

A weekend of Champions

The Irish Champions Festival once again lived up the billing with some enthralling contests and brilliant winners across the weekend.

9.42AM

Oakley Brown

I'm from a racing town called Malton in North Yorkshire and we were good family friends with (ex-jockey) Mark Dwyer and the Dwyer family. My sister got a pony when she was nine and she was riding ponies while I wanted to be a farmer. I eventually got the courage to get up on a pony and after I rode the pony once, I loved speed, jumping and galloping. Then when I was about 12, I headed to Mark's one morning and ever since then I knew I wanted to be a jockey. Mark probably taught me everything I needed to know about riding horses and then I got a racing pony when I was 13, so I started pony racing. I think I rode maybe 40 winners pony racing. I started off on a farm pony called Kelly, a Connemara, and she won a race. Then i got two little thoroughbreds out of Ireland and they were very good.

11.44AM

Shark Hanlon suspension

Shark Hanlon could never have imagined as he loaded a deceased horse onto a trailer on 14 June that his actions that day would lead to him being banned from training horses.

9.08AM

Buyer beware

On more than one occasion in this blog I have expressed my view that Claiming races should not be part of the mainstream horse racing schedule. It is not fair that punters are presented with these races and expected to decipher them in the same way as any other contest. Time and again we see that you cannot rely on prior form or the official ratings of the contenders as these tend to bear little resemblance to the outcomes.

10.05AM

James Ryan

I'm from north Co Dublin, just between Dublin and Co Meath, and I always grew up around horses. My dad would have been involved plenty with hunting and he's always had show horses at Dublin Horse Show, and my mam did a lot of eventing. She evented at the top level, so we started off with ponies at a very young age. It has always been in the family. We would have done a lot of hunting during the winter and during the summer we would have brought the ponies to the shows nearly every weekend with the IPS (Irish Pony Society), and would have done a lot of working hunter. I won the Supreme Title at the IPS National Championship with working hunters. We had a lot of fun doing that with friends and still have friends doing it. I represented Ireland at the International Working Hunter Championship in Wales in 2019. I was lucky to go over and represent Ireland at that. It was great fun and we had a great time. My mam and dad would be involved a lot in the showing and we were very lucky we able to bring the ponies over to England a lot for the shows over there.

12.07PM

Puzzling stewards’ decisions

Horse racing loves a star and the brightest one at the moment is undoubtedly City Of Troy. The colt is certainly living up to the hype and his track record breaking victory at York last week against a top notch field was mighty impressive.

10.52AM

Positive Discrimination

Reports that Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Henry De Bromhead and Gavin Cromwell are threatening a legal challenge to Horse Racing Ireland’s (HRI) new series of 60 National Hunt races that specifically precludes these four trainers from competing is somewhat unexpected.

9.28AM

Alex Harvey

I grew up in a small village called the Naul in north County Dublin. My grandfather, who is originally from south County Dublin, moved up and he started training racehorses in the 1980s. He trained all the way up until the early 2000s. There was always an interest there. My dad rode a bit as an amateur - he maybe had 10 or 12 rides, but he did a lot of hunting. I kind of got into it from that. Once I got older and strong enough, I started riding racehorses and it went from there. I used to go racing a lot when I was younger and kind of fell in love with it then. It was all I kind of wanted to do really. Jockey Ben (Harvey) is my older brother. We pushed each other along, we kind of both wanted the same things. We raced the ponies on the gallop at home against each other.

12.28PM

Horse racing and Olympic sports are different

Like most people I sat down each evening over the last few weeks to watch the Olympics. It was wonderful entertainment and the Irish successes were an unexpected bonus.

11.41AM

Petrol Head

Last Thursday shortly after 12 o’clock my dreams were dashed when I saw a red line through the name of Petrol Head in the list of runners for the Guinness Galway Hurdle.

1.21PM

HRI moves to address National Hunt imbalance

Last week Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) announced a new series of National Hunt races beginning in January that specifically precludes horses trained by Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Henry De Bromhead and Gavin Cromwell from competing.

10.26AM

Racing is about more than just winners and losers

The vast majority of people that turn up at racing Festivals like Galway at the end of this month go for the craic. A couple of drinks, a few bets, a bite to eat, maybe a couple more drinks and a good day is generally had by all.

9.48AM

Hugh Morgan

I'm from Kilmacow in Co Kilkenny. We bred National Hunt and Flat horses on the home farm and there were jockeys throughout my family - my great-grandfather and grandfather were jockeys. I would have grown up watching a lot of racing. For me, it wasn't until my early teens that I got into racing. Up until then, I would have done showjumping for a small bit. When I was younger, athletics was my main thing. I did quite okay at the athletics and it was a decision whether to pursue a career at the athletics or not. Horses took over then. I went to Dick Brabazon on the Curragh and that's where my racing journey really started. He was a friend of the family and it was my first racing yard. It was a brief spell with Dick. He was a very good man, good for advice and very patient. Then when I went to Jim Bolger's, it was quite an eye-opener at the start. I never had a problem, though. You went in there and did your work and it was ingrained into you how to do the work.

11.43AM

Should amateur jockeys be paid?

I’ve always loved the story of Ireland’s first Gold medallist at the Olympics Games, Dubliner John Pius Boland, who competed at the inaugural modern games in 1896. He had travelled to Athens on holidays to simply watch the events, but upon hearing of poor numbers of entries for the Tennis he put his name down. He borrowed a racket, but couldn’t find tennis shoes to fit and played in leather shoes before going on to win gold medals in both the singles and doubles.

9.52AM

Deloitteful new ad campaign from HRI

During the past week I noticed a number of adverts appearing on my social media feeds promoting the social and economic impact of horse racing in different counties and regions of Ireland produced by Horse Racing Ireland (HRI).

9.56AM

Kathy McMullan

I live in Dromore, Co Down and I was born and reared in Downpatrick. From I was three years of age, I had my first pony - a wee Shetland called Crocus. My eldest sister would have show jumped. I jumped ponies until I was about 16 - I wouldn't have been hugely successful, to be honest, but I had a great interest. Then boys and life took over, and after a number of years my daughter Kayleigh came along. My parents still stayed involved with show jumping ponies and would have had people riding for them. My daughter immediately showed an interest in ponies. She got her first one at two and a-half.

11.47AM

No winners at Comer case Appeal

Last week the Appeals Body published their verdicts on the appeals made by Trainer Luke Comer and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) into the sanctions imposed on Comer at the original Referral Hearings.

11.29AM

Numbers Game

You have to hand it to British racing, with all the issues facing the sport across the water at the moment, they are still world leaders at putting on a show.

10.28AM

Nathan Crosse

I'm from Ballylooby, Co Tipperary and my dad was a jockey mainly in England and a little bit in America before moving home to Ireland. He was Head Lad to Tommy Stack for nine years and always pre-broke a couple of horses. My brother, Shane, was more interested in horses than I was. Shane wanted to start pony racing and I saw how much fun he was having with that and how much of a buzz he was getting off it. So, after a year of that, I started pony racing with a great pony that Billy and Jack Kennedy gave us called Pair Of Jack's. He actually got Jack going too. He used to get us off his back more times than we were on his back! He was a great pony to get us going. I also used to ride out in Tommy Stack's in the summer holidays and that.

12.03PM

Once a racehorse, always a racehorse

The Prime Time Investigates: ‘Horses - Making A Killing’ that aired on RTÉ last Wednesday was utterly shocking. The abuse of horses shown on the programme was nothing short of barbaric and I’m at a loss to understand how this could have taken place in a country where horses are as celebrated and prized as they are in Ireland.

10.16AM

Baptism of fire

The local council election results will have been well received by horse racing’s administrators with the main Government parties polling far better than expected.

10.45AM

Paul Callaghan

I am from Meath Hill which is a small townland based in north County Meath. I first got into racing through my father. On my father's side, everyone would have been interested in racing. I grew up the youngest of five and at that time the Fairyhouse Easter Festival was on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We used to go on Wednesday, it was family day and I absolutely loved it. From there, I started to broaden the horizons to Navan and Dundalk when it was a grass track. I even got up to Phoenix Park a couple of times and Sligo as well. I grew up on a farm and we had our holidays in Laytown. We used to go during race week. I loved both codes - Flat and National Hunt, but particularly fell in love with National Hunt racing. That all sparked my interest to be a National Hunt jockey. I started primary school at five and even then I knew I wanted to be a jockey.

10.11AM

The best is yet to come

What an incredible weekend it was for Irish horse racing with two absolute masters of the training ranks winning the Oaks and Derby at Epsom.

11.07AM

Five year plan

As the National Hunt season was wrapping up at Punchestown I headed away for a few weeks to Spain to recharge the batteries and take a short break from the sport.

11.35AM

Gillian Callaghan

I'm from Allenstown between Navan and Kells in Co Meath. I grew up there with my three older brothers and we were all involved in horses and ponies growing up. My dad bred and produced a lot of half-breds, so we broke ponies, hunted and did the usual pony club. They would have been produced and resold, and we worked hard at it. My dad still does a bit now as well. My brothers helped out in the yard and my older brother, Greg Harford, was into racing first. He was an amateur rider and he started off with Michael Cunningham and in his later years went to Noel Meade. He was a pretty successful amateur there. I used to go pointing and racing with Greg and that was how I got into racing.

11.06AM

Danny Gilligan

1.53PM

Racing audiences are getting younger

The British National Hunt season went out with a bang on Saturday at Sandown when Willie Mullins was crowned Champion British Trainer for the very first time.

10.30AM

Tom Harney

I'm from a place called Eadestown, just outside Naas, beside Punchestown racecourse. I had a pony when I was younger at home and I was kind of mad for a bit of speed! I got into Michael Halford's when I was 12 or 13. I rode out there on my school holidays and weekends for five years before I left school. There were some brilliant lads in Michael Halford's at the time like Sean Corby, who rode as an apprentice for a while, Shane Foley was stable jockey and Conor Hoban was apprentice there. You can see from Michael Halford's track record, he had some brilliant apprentices over the years including Gary Carroll. It was a great place to learn and I learned plenty. I was still very weak and green and I wasn't quite sure whether I was going to be good enough to be a jockey but, in fairness, it was the route for me. I had a crack at college in Carlow, but I didn't enjoy that - I only lasted about three weeks! I missed the horses a lot.

12.37PM

The Perfect Storm

Weather has always been the number one topic of conversation in Ireland which is most odd considering we don’t actually get extreme weather events like other countries and for the most part we don’t even have seasons.

10.31AM

Nothing to see here

Not a single faller in the Grand National has to be seen as a major triumph for those involved in tweaking with the great race to make it palatable for a modern audience.

9.59AM

Keithen Kennedy

I'm from Monasterevin, Co Kildare and I'm riding since I could walk really. My grandad used to have a few of his own horses. None of my family would really be into racing, but I got into riding ponies. Then, when I was about 11 or 12, I started pony racing which is a great place to start. It gives you loads of experience of race riding and gets your brain set up for the track. My cousin Aidan Melia supplied me with more than 20 winners pony racing. He was very good to me and got me going. I was all over the country pony racing up to Donegal and down to Kerry and sometimes over to Scotland as well. When I was about 11, I was in with trainer Seamus Fahey and he was very good to me. He got me going riding racehorses and gave me loads of experience riding work. I was always small when I was young and everyone used to tell me I should be a jockey. Thank God I stayed that way and my weight is good. I wouldn't wake up more than eight stone every morning. Hopefully, things stay like that.

8.22AM

British racing on the front foot with horsepwr website

Last week British horse racing launched an information portal to present the facts about the sport. Everything from horse fatalities, to doping and whip offences are covered in a clear and concise manner.

10.23AM

Alice Power

I'm from Lemybrien in Co Waterford and I started off on ponies, hunting and fun rides. My brother and I would race each other on the ponies. My mam and dad were very good to my brother and I as they brought us around all the hunts and all the fun rides they could. My mother and father both rode in point-to-points and trained horses. My mother's mother and father also rode point-to-points and my father's dad bred horses and trained greyhounds, so I was born and bred into the game. From the age of three, mother had me sitting up on racehorses at home, and I had a big smile on my face and absolutely loved it from day one. Sitting on a horse was what I loved. More or less I always wanted to be a jockey when I was growing up. I started riding out at home at the age of 14. My father (Walter Power) had maybe 15 horses in at the one time, training them for the track and point-to-points. It was a busy yard and, the same as anyone who grows up in a racing yard, you pick things up very quickly particularly watching my parents breaking horses, riding pieces of work and the training of racehorses. Basically the horsemanship of it all. It was a great grounding. When I went into transition year, I went into John Kiely's and Henry de Bromhead's and that was where I really got the bug for it.

1.06PM

Uncompetitive races are bad for the sport

There is no doubt that the concentration of all the best jumps horses in a handful of stables is having a profound effect on National Hunt racing in Ireland. Many races have become uncompetitive and this in turn has meant that many of the smaller stables are struggling to survive.

10.27AM

Irish dominance at Cheltenham causing concern

Julie Harrington, chief executive of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) issued a statement in the aftermath of Cheltenham that amounted to a rallying cry to her industry to take urgent steps to address the imbalance of Irish trainers winning 12 of the 14 Grade One races at the Festival.

11.03AM

Conor O'Dwyer

I'm from Wexford Town and I didn't have anything to do with horses or the horse industry initially - mum was a matron in Wexford General Hospital and dad was an accountant in a few different firms.

11.49AM

The best four days of entertainment

With a cohort of racing fans once again calling for Cheltenham to return to a three day Festival I thought it might be a bit of fun to take a break from all the form study and look back at what Cheltenham was really like when the Festival was done and dusted by Thursday afternoon.

11.00AM

One size fits all

The Constitution Hill saga has been fascinating to follow over the last week. Thanks to Nicky Henderson’s candour and daily updates I now know far more about the medical condition of a horse in Lambourn than I necessarily would about a close relative in Tallaght Hospital.

9.48AM

Camilla Sharples

I'm from north west England, Lancashire to be precise. I lived near a place called Lancaster which is near the Lake District. I've been involved with horses all my life. I grew up with them and did pony club, did riding club and did British eventing and British dressage. I was quite successful and did that all through school. I did quite well in my A Levels and I was supposed to go and do Marketing and Advertising at Lancaster University. I had a really good horse at the time and I decided I would take a gap year and event her. While I took my gap year, I went and worked in a local plumbing and heating company in the accounts department. I ended up doing that for two years. I deferred my entry for a year and then I got the bug of earning a bit of money and decided not to go to university! So I took another gap year but, while working in that company, I kept my horse in a livery yard. In the livery yard I became really good friends with a girl called Rebecca Menzies. She kept her horses on the livery yard and we became best pals.

10.45AM