Latest Blogs from Vincent Finegan and "My Racing Story"

Cool Heads Required

The Easter Sunday Grade 1 features at Fairyhouse provided a timely reminder that the sun does actually come up the day after Cheltenham. Jer's Girl and Kylemore Lough secured top-flight honours in style, providing connections with lucrative dividends for not succumbing to the festival's overarching charms. That neither is likely to head their respective championship divisions come the end of the season won't impact in the slightest on their newly acquired Grade 1 status.

8.56AM

Cooper Delivered When It Counted

Potential is fine but fulfilling it requires delivery. After replacing Davy Russell as Gigginstown’s No. 1 jockey, Bryan Cooper had been the ‘next-big-thing’ for some time. Many weren’t convinced, doubting his age and inexperience for such a high-profile job, for delivering when it counted. But when it counted most of all, Cooper’s judgement, nerve and skill delivered in style with Don Cossack’s Gold Cup success. The phrase ‘next-big-thing’ needs to lose a word, and it isn’t ‘big’ or ‘thing.’

9.22AM

Tired & Trusted

The hottest Cheltenham favourite this week is likely to be Douvan: maybe odds should be similarly short about the whip debate again dominating the aftermath of one of the championship events. Paddy Brennan got fined €5,600, and banned for 11 days, after landing the King George with what the Kempton stewards described as a ‘win at all costs’ ride. It doesn’t get more ‘at-all-costs’ than at Cheltenham so we may well be heading for some tired and trusted arguments.

8.36AM

Keep On Truckin'

Willie Mullins sometimes uses pre-Cheltenham media invasions to outline broader concerns than just running plans. Last year he talked about inadequate prizemoney levels at the festival. In 2014 it was racecourse security. This time the champion gloomily forecast problems a couple of generations down the line, and how jump racing could disappear should greater internationalisation of the sport not take place. He is confident this can happen. His confidence looks misplaced.

9.29AM

The Mushroom Approach

Bellyaching about Cheltenham getting diluted by too many days and too many races is a futile exercise on the back of continuing commercial success which nevertheless can’t disguise, in purely racing terms, some negative impacts. The festival is billed as National Hunt’s championships where the various strands of form through the season come together. But does that necessarily hold true anymore?

8.52AM

Babysitting The Cottage

There is nothing more vital to racing’s credibility, image, reputation and self-interest than the quick implementation of the Drugs Task Force recommendation for protocols to be put in place between breeders and the Turf Club regarding Out Of Competition Testing and how it is carried out. And yet nothing has happened. There hasn’t been a meeting yet between the regulatory body and the Breeders Association. Since there’s no greater priority if the Task Force report really is as significant as everyone insists it is the obvious question is why not?

9.18AM

The Bottom Line Trudge

As a rule it’s best to be wary of ‘Is It Just Me’ blogs. But is it just me or is this persistent whinge about Ireland’s National Hunt game getting really old? Yes the game is dominated by an ownership and training elite but that’s nothing new. And yes some winter racing is uncompetitive as a result. But it’s remarkable how so many who previously prided themselves on being economically hard-nosed when things were flying now seem oblivious to the idea that they’re in business and have no divine right to financial survival.

8.57AM

A Process Undermined By Procedure

The argument for stewards relying on camera pictures at a central HQ has been made more than once in recent years and its credibility was boosted by the glacial progress of the Leopardstown enquiry following Who’s That’s handicap victory at the weekend. Everyone at the track could see there was a relatively straight-forward decision to be made. Official confirmation the placing remained unaltered though came just seconds before the off of the following Grade 1 race. Maybe some enjoyed the drama. More felt it looked amateurish.

8.48AM

Who's Going To Walk The Walk?

Reports by their nature are often ends in themselves, an exercise in replacing action with movement, so there is some scepticism about any impact the Anti-Doping Task Force document about to be rubber-stamped by the Horse Racing Ireland board might have. Sceptics will believe it has already served its function, in being seen to do something: only time will tell if they’re right, but substantial leadership will be required to prove them wrong.

9.13AM

The Secret Jockey - Vol 1

Is there is a gaping editorial hole for some insider straight-talking? Not the cod-blunt crap that so many of racing’s supposed straight-shooters indulge in, rather more along the Guardian’s notorious ‘Secret Footballer’ Diary. Anonymity famously allowed one player a licence to tell it as it really is, and with authority. A ‘Secret Jockey’ Diary could go far beyond mere “he’s a nice horse” cliché? It would be a service. People would pay to read it. So here’s an un-authoritative prototype.

8.57AM

Don't Spend It All In One Place

It is two months exactly until Don Poli wins the Gold Cup - just the sort of speculative rubbish his owner publicly scorns but which Michael O’Leary must also privately realise is the stuff that keeps the whole shooting match going. So with everyone else getting their ante-post tuppence in, and the Cheltenham countdown gathering pace all the time, here’s why Don Poli and the others will win the festival’s championship contests - theoretically.

8.46AM

Stomping Over The Line

Just because a line in the sand is invisible doesn’t mean people can’t recognise it, a tough reality to explain but a racing reality none the less. It’s a line the unrealistic believe shouldn’t exist at all since they expect every runner to be trying for its life every time. Given intangible factors such as human nature, and rather more tangible factors like the programme book, that’s pie-in-the-sky. What those with lower expectations resent is when the line gets crossed with impunity.

9.21AM

Punters Of The World Unite

The following observations on handicaps were made to the renowned sportswriter Hugh McIlvanney whose collection of work on horseracing I’ve been re-reading recently in an attempt to brush up on how the job is done properly. They are over 20 years old but I challenge anyone to dispute their relevance because they still point out the systemic basis for so much of what goes on.

9.34AM

Annus Horribilis

Queen Elizabeth II’s famous ‘Annus Horribilis’ was 1992: history could decide 2015 to have been the Turf Club’s. History will be dismissed as bunk by those eagerly eyeing their brave new recession-free future but 225 years of the stuff is difficult to wave away entirely. The Turf Club of 2016 will be very different to that of even a decade ago. The current consensus is that that is inevitable given racing’s financial realities and future consensus may be that the inevitable was rubber-stamped this year.

8.51AM

Get Out Of Jail Card

Last week’s successful appeals to the Turf Club’s Referrals Committee against the ‘non-trier’ penalties imposed on Shantou Ed, Bobbie’s Diamond and their connections at Fairyhouse were notable for a few reasons but perhaps most of all the bases on which they were made — veterinary evidence unavailable to the raceday stewards. Which begs the rather obvious question as to why it was unavailable?

9.13AM

Task Force Slow Ahead

On the back of last year’s steroids controversy, a Drugs Task Force was set up to examine and report on the extent of any potential doping problem within the racing and bloodstock industries. Some of the great and the good were appointed to represent the various sectors under the chairmanship of the soon to be installed Turf Club senior steward Meta Osborne. That was a year ago and yet we’ve heard little or nothing about it since.

9.18AM

Interference Is Interference

Special Tiara’s connections are considering an appeal against the Tingle Creek result. Sad to say the consensus is their chances of getting it reversed are slim to none. If Simple Verse managed to secure the Leger after her jockey admitting to a cold and calculated piece of interference, then the cross-channel rulebook is unlikely to reverse a result on the basis of Sire De Grugy taking out his Irish rival in midair over the final fence. All of which only emphasises — again — how the British rulebook should have been taken out and burned long ago.

9.06AM

Dirty Harry's Spine Donor

The bit of wind that briefly caused furrowed brows at the Winter Festival’s Sunday meeting was nothing compared to the gust of change apparently sweeping through Fairyhouse’s stewards room a day before. The talk at the front of the shop was about Grade 1’s: all anyone at the back could talk about was the sudden frenzy of policing vigour which saw two horses ‘done’ under the non-trier rules and a few other cases ‘noted.’

8.57AM

Next Big Thing

Racing loves the Next Big Thing. There are few things more seductive than the emergence of a potentially outstanding new talent. That many fail to live up to such billing doesn't dilute the excitement. That the sense of expectation around potential is often unfair doesn't matter either: if there's a bandwagon to jump on there's never a shortage of jumpers. All the cautious qualifications in the world however can't prevent many believing Jack Kennedy could be just such an 'NBT.'

9.21AM

It's Simple - Talent Is Talent

I spoke to Pat Eddery face-to-face only once, in the old press room at the Curragh where jockeys used to come and watch racing on the telly. It was just a casual, meaningless conversation about whatever we were looking at. He was very pleasant and relaxed, and I was very tongue-tied: after all it's hard to know what to say to your childhood idols.

9.47AM

The Phoney War Is Over

Faugheen is back this Sunday and those who treasure every appearance by this unbeaten superstar with his agricultural looks and stellar ability won't care if he winds up 1-100 against the clerk of the course's pet dog. Outrageous talent should be treasured whatever the circumstances. But on the back of Don Cossack's recent 2-11 jaunt against just three opponents in the first Grade 1 of the season, another likely solo by Faugheen in the second will probably provoke more anxious cries about a lack of competition in Ireland's top events.

8.54AM

Curragh Calculations

American Pharoah was described as the horse to save US racing but now that he's packed off to stud he will be increasingly seen as a mere sticking plaster - albeit a wonderfully evocative plaster - to an industry which appears resolutely unwilling to save itself. The Water, Hay & Oats Alliance is crying WHOA when it comes to medication: most everyone else in America seems determined to kick on regardless.

8.45AM

Forward To The Past

The 30th anniversary of Back To The Future has made a few recent headlines but it appears a case of Forward To The Past in regard to the Breeders Cup, a shop window to the world for American racing which highlights a resolutely parochial store stuffed to the brim with the same seedy baggage it had all the way back in 1984.

10.01AM

Mullins To The Max In Melbourne

With the flat and jumps seasons blurring at this time of year it is perhaps timely to point how quite a few shrewd punters out there reckon the flat trainer most rigorously worth keeping onside is actually the jumping maestro Willie Mullins. So it will be fascinating to see if Max Dynamite can make it third time lucky for Mullins in the upcoming Melbourne Cup and what, if anything, it might mean should Mullins win one of the world's great Group 1 races on the level.

9.18AM

When Two Tribes Go To War?

Tuesday is budget day when racing can reportedly look forward to a significant finance boost. Compared to that, a Turf Club meeting on the same day looks small beer. There certainly won't be any big figures emerging from it. Nothing at all might emerge publicly. But with government determined to press ahead with their Horse Racing Ireland Bill the mood and tone at the regulatory body meeting could be potentially much more significant in the long term than another short-term slice of state largesse.

9.27AM

Rounding The Horn

Flagships are essentially exercises in vanity. But that doesn't mean they're wrong. Vanity mightn't be particularly attractive but it's interesting to ponder how much achievement there would be without it. So news that plans for the Curragh redevelopment - Irish racing's new flagship - are shortly to be announced is good news. Maybe it is a vanity thing but God alone knows the Curragh could do with being tarted up. Right now HQ isn't so much luxury liner as leaky punt.

8.28AM

The Rubber Stamp

Coolmore showed commendable restraint in their reaction to losing the Doncaster St Leger at the BHA appeal. Aidan O'Brien and Colm O'Donoghue seemed determined to draw a line through the affair, repeatedly employing a 'that's racing' approach that made more than one observer ponder whether or not such sang-froid would have been employed if the Group 1 prize was a Guineas or a Derby and not the sadly dishevelled Leger.

8.54AM

Pyramid Of Piffle

The phrase 'curate's egg' has been employed to describe Champions Weekend II but it's inaccurate since that inference is that it was mostly bad. And that's wrong. In fact there are plenty positives for racing to nourish itself on. The party line certainly appears to be that it was all very Faberge. However there's no getting away from what were basically static attendance figures for the event, something which underlines the scale of the task those in charge of Champions Weekend have in turning it into a sporting institution.

9.04AM

Empire Of The Sun

The sun may have set on Empire but judged by some of the more bellicose cross-channel reactions to the Irish Champion Stakes' timing move, and the consequent impact on arrangements for Doncaster's St Leger, some appear to be grimly hanging on to the delusion that the industry sun still revolves rigidly around racing on the \"Mainland.\"

8.42AM

The Fat Lady Sings At The End

Cursing the weather might just be the ultimate in futility but if the elements conspire to deny us an Irish Champion Stakes epic quite a few fists will still be shaken at the skies. The prospect of Golden Horn, Gleneagles, Free Eagle & Co in action really could mean the best race run anywhere in the world in 2015, a worthy 'Champions Weekend' highlight, and potentially epic in its dramatic scope. So why is this fat lady singing when the show ain't half over?

8.38AM

Steady As She Goes

Government and big business have jostled for headlines in the last week but still pale next to the good old-fashioned rumour train which continues to reverberate with those supposedly in the know torn between dismissing speculation about Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle future as a storm in a tea-cup or inevitable spillage from a pressure cooker situation just waiting to boil over.

8.48AM

It Ain't Going To Happen

Can demands for global harmonisation of the interference rules cease immediately please. They're well meaning but futile. If Horse Racing Ireland's famously astute chief executive Brian Kavanagh says he can't see it happening then it ain't happening. Kavanagh is a vice-chairman of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities and possesses a world reputation as a racing administrator. He points out how the problem between say Britain and Ireland compared to France and the US is philosophical. One side has to give to produce uniformity. That ain't happening anytime soon.

9.24AM

Diary Of A Wimpy Call

Racing is home to a lot of flannel but the hoary old line about a good horse being able to go on any ground must rank high amongst its most inane pieces of supposed wisdom. Any horse can go on any ground: it's just a question of how fast. Good horses go faster on most any ground but that doesn't mean they go as fast on everything. Rare is the animal that doesn't have optimum ground conditions for showing its best. Even rarer is the likelihood of those conditions all of the time.

9.03AM

Preach To The Converted

Without wishing to pee on the Aga Khan Cup parade, showjumping's place in the sporting consciousness provides racing with salutary warnings about smugly presuming a public profile. There was a time when showjumping was a big deal. Last week RTE news ran a clip on the Dublin Horse Show which didn't feature a single horse. Instead it was all about who won the Best Dressed Lady competition. Anyone 100 per cent confident such a scenario can't happen with racing hasn't been paying attention.

9.18AM

Ghostbusters

Two years after the mechanics of Carlingford Lough getting into the Galway Plate memorably shone a spotlight on the reserve system, it's interesting to note how it flickered again last week on the back of Modem not getting into the Galway Hurdle. Modem's trainer Jessica Harrington had two other declared runners and both of them ran. Since there was no non-runner, Modem, the first reserve, didn't run. One racing worthy said the episode restored his faith in humanity. As for his faith in the system he wasn't so sure.

10.34AM

Limping Tiger Hidden Logic

It feels symmetrical the current preferred route for the proposed Galway Bypass running through where the notorious Galway Tent was situated. Bertie Ahern placed great store in building up Ireland's road structure during the Celtic Tiger years: now the site of that popular symbol of those flush years is destined to end up under asphalt. Meanwhile the Galway festival itself continues to thrive as Irish racing's most distinctive race meeting with its only real reference being itself.

9.17AM

Just Ask The Greeks

Just as nobody can ever be completely confident about what might happen in a steward's enquiry, so it is when the crap hits the courts. Nobody's panicking, and those in the know say it was all but inevitable, but with Britain's 'point of consumption' betting law referred to Europe, there is inevitable unease over possible implications for Ireland's new betting bill. Because in Europe big-picture considerations can wind up trumping the local: Just ask the Greeks.

8.51AM

The Piper Calls The Tune

Although racing's administration mightn't be dysfunctional its players have hardly been working seamlessly together either. Interest groups resolutely fight their own corners and relations between Horse Racing Ireland and the Turf Club continue to be mired in mutual suspicion. The blame game is being played big-time. But the chain of command means the buck ultimately stops at Simon Coveney's desk. That's the fate of those in charge.

9.18AM

When In Rome

News that Golden Horn is likely to be retired at the end of the season has generated some tried and trusted criticism along the lines of how is flat racing supposed to generate public attention when its headline acts are packed off to stud as soon as their profile threatens to break out of the sport's narrow confines.

9.17AM

New Sherriff In Town

The temptation after every Irish Derby is to read long-term implications into each individual renewal, sometimes positive, but more often in recent years the reaction has been sombre. After Australia's 1-8 rout in 2014 Ireland's premier classic was even written off as a meaningful contest. Maybe the lesson from Jack Hobbs' odds on victory in 2015 is to ease up on portentous readings of the classic tealeaves.

9.32AM

Moore The Greatest?

With success comes popularity and there's no more popular jockey on the planet right now than Ryan Moore. He's winning and everyone loves a winner. The fact he's quite clearly the real deal isn't in doubt. It has become a shorthand description to label Moore as the world's best jockey. Aidan O'Brien labelled him ?the greatest jockey I've ever seen.? So Moore is clearly a talent worthy of comparison to any generation - but the greatest?

9.17AM

'Come On Ireland'

Wrapping the green flag around an Irish-winner tally is more of a Cheltenham indulgence but it would be no surprise to see the history books rewritten come Saturday evening given the strength of this year's Royal Ascot raiding party. There have been a record eight Irish trained Royal Ascot winners in each of the last three years, matching the 2008 tally: what are the odds about that being broken this week, maybe even by hitting the 'Big 10.'

9.23AM

Every Yard Is A Punting Yard

A recent conversation with a racing-worthy generated the name of a wealthy owner who it is generally recognised likes a bet, especially on horses from a certain stable. Except this establishment pillar was having none of it, dismissing the idea by observing the man is worth millions so why should he get worked up about betting. He also dismissively described said stable as a \"punting yard.\"

9.31AM

History Isn't Bunk

Anyone believing history to be bunk need only look at the Derby to be convinced otherwise. The most important race might indeed always be the next one but Epsom's 'blue-riband' is always the most important race of the year precisely because of its history. It's why the Derby finishing post is famously the basis of the thoroughbred breed.

9.33AM

What To Do With A Million

A million quid is small change only to the very wealthiest, and they haven't wound up being the very wealthiest by not knowing the value of a million quid. But as racing here looks forward to a more prosperous financial future, investing a million in state-of-the-art drug-detection equipment might be one timely investment the industry in Ireland could make.

9.12AM

Big-Picture Change

'Taking Ownership' is a typically imprecise piece of corporate-speak, which doesn't mean it's completely meaningless either, unless of course it is applied to those loudly declaring themselves possessed of a stake in that entity known as Irish racing and simultaneously appear unwilling to acknowledge any ownership of it at all when it suits them.

9.18AM

Its Showtime!

BLOG POST 12. This is my final blog post. As I write, I am in the final week of rehearsals for Jockey. My fellow artistic collaborators, Sophie, Sarah- Jane, Jack, Kilian, our producer Kate, stage manager Caoimhe, production manager Adam, racing consultant Dave Donohue and good friends Shane and Muirne have been passionately working hard and putting in long hours to fully realise this whole journey into a theatre and dance performance that is for you, the public - our audience. We work well as a team and the sound of laughter resounds frequently in the rehearsal room. If there isn't laughter, what's the point? I've been dancing, choreographing, acting, structuring, perfecting and rehearsing for 8 hours a day. Yes, there have been sleepless nights but that is just par for the course.

7.34PM

Dancing With Painkillers

BLOG POST 11. April 2015. The first day of rehearsals for Jockey has finally come! I have been gearing up to this day for months, literally. I've had a big obstacle to get through with recovering from a back injury. The past four months for me has been a slow and arduous recuperation. Every day I have been diligently doing my core rehab exercises that Liz Kent set out for me back in January coupled with a gradual progression to a more advanced program from my physiotherapist in Dublin, once I was ready for it. Aside from that I have been doing a lot of general fitness, stretching and strengthening as long as it didn't hurt my back. It has been a case of one step forward, two steps back, but you have just got to keep at it, rest if your body is telling you to and start a fresh when you can.

9.24AM

Apples Oranges & Bananas

One grizzled Irish racing veteran surveyed Willie Mullins's dominance of last week's Punchestown festival and summed it up with a single phrase - \"Ballydoyle-stuff.\" Except an argument can be made that this is singular stuff for which even comparison to flat racing's powerhouse isn't sufficient: Mullins's dominance of Irish jump racing is freakish by any standard.

9.55AM