Latest Blogs from Vincent Finegan and "My Racing Story"

Emma Meehan

I completed a Masters in Marketing and Business after my primary degree in the University of Ulster. I was working for a year in Belfast and then saw the job for Dundalk Racecourse that came up. They were one year in with the greyhounds and had a vision to bring horse racing. They wanted to appoint a Sales and Marketing Manager to oversee both sports - I went for that role and thankfully got it, and that is where I remained for quite a number of years.

9.27AM

Changing Seasons

The British Flat season officially ending three weeks before the turf action actually ends is not a perfect conclusion but ‘Champions Day at Ascot’ certainly adds a lot more glamour to the crowning of the season’s Champions than the Irish version at Naas last Sunday.

12.19PM

Andrew Kinirons

I’m based on the family farm near Newbridge Co Kildare and I have a Curragh licence so we can bring our horses there for faster work when necessary.

10.09AM

Farewell Trainer

Today racing laid to rest one of its true heroes. Frank Ennis (75) lived and loved horse racing his entire life and gave far more to the sport than he ever took from it.

2.21PM

Roger McGrath

My parents were into racing, both sides of my parents' family would have strong racing connections. My father, Michael McGrath, was a veterinary surgeon who trained horses and was a very keen breeder. His father before him trained horses from the 1930s onwards. I grew up in a family-run operation with a small number of horses.

10.25AM

Perception is not always reality

David Walsh’s Sunday Times article into the details surrounding Bryony Frost’s bullying and harassment allegations against fellow jockey Robbie Dunne makes for grim reading.

1.56PM

Jack Foley

I’m from Ballyloughan near Bagenalstown, Co Carlow and my grand-uncle was the late Tom Foley. His yard is just down the road from where I grew up. It’s great to see his son Pat continuing the tradition of training winners from Aughabeg Stables.

1.12PM

Not all Group 1's are equal

When the Panorama investigation into inhumane practices at Abattoirs in the UK was first broadcast back in July it sent shockwaves through the horse racing communities both here and in Britain. Shortly after the programme aired the Oireachtas Hearings into Jim Bolger’s allegations of doping of racehorses began and the Panorama programme was discussed in detail during those Hearings.

12.05PM

Brian Hamilton

I was always into the pony club and did a bit of pony racing in my youth. I had nothing else in my head other than horses since I was a kid. It was the only thing I really knew anything about. My mother had point-to-pointers and I rode in point-to-points and, the first year I rode, I had three winners when I was 16 so I thought it was easy then!

10.07AM

Racing's highs and lows

Sunday’s 100th running of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe produced a thriller. Europe's premier race had promised so much with a glittering line up and certainly delivered a wonderful spectacle where all the leading contenders held their chances in the home straight but in the end it wasn’t quite the result we expected to round off a vintage Flat season.

12.44PM

Brian Duffy

You couldn’t dream of the two days we have had, for me to train my first two winners at my local track in Bellewstown within 24 hours of one another, the second coming on the day that Frankie Dettori rode a winner, Barney Curley was honoured and so much money was made for his charity, DAFA (Direct Aid For Africa).

9.58AM

Jockeys' mental health is a big issue for the sport

It takes a certain type of character to make it as a jockey. Many would say you’d need a screw loose to even contemplate it as a career but for those that do take up the challenge it has the potential to be a very lucrative occupation.

1.05PM

Eric McNamara

I train in Beechmount House in Rathkeale. My parents were there 50 years and unfortunately both of them passed away through Alzheimers. I bought it off my brothers and sisters after they did.

10.19AM

The same but different

It seemed like old times this past week with Davy riding winners, Gordon training doubles and trebles, and Charles landing gambles. Normality restored.

12.40PM

Ger Lyons

When Irish Champions Weekend started, I just wanted to have runners. Then I thought it would be great to have a winner. To leave Leopardstown on Saturday with four from that day alone is just what dreams are made of but the team as a whole deserve huge credit. They knew this is what I was targeting all year. I said all year, Irish Champions Weekend was where we were going. Whatever we had was going to be aimed at it.

5.18PM

A weekend of Champions

Looking back at Irish Champions Weekend there were many notable performances but the big takeaway from the two days was that you don’t need large fields to produce high class competition. The four-runner turnout for the Irish Champion Stakes was obviously disappointing, as was the lack of international participation, but it nonetheless produced a classic renewal. Three high-class horses powering up the Leopardstown straight virtually in unison was just about as good as it gets.

12.32PM

Mick Winters

Galway is a track I have always enjoyed visiting, after winning the Galway Hurdle two years in a row with Rebel Fitz and Missunited, so it was great to make the journey to Ballybrit pay off when Doldido got up by a nose in the handicap chase on Monday, with Jordan Gainford wearing my own colours.

10.05AM

Sometimes when you win you still lose

Animal cruelty is a highly emotive issue. To many people it ranks close to paedophilia as one of the most heinous of crimes. For that reason I have tried to take a dispassionate view of Stephen Mahon’s Appeal Hearing verdict.

10.37AM

Aidan O'Brien

I think it’s vital that it looks like normality will resume in terms of full attendances at Irish race meetings from October. I think it’s very important for atmosphere and interest. When you go racing when there is a crowd there, there is a totally different atmosphere for everybody, horses, jockeys, owners, trainers. And that’s what racing is all about. It has to be a spectacle. It has to be somewhere that everybody wants to go and when they do go to enjoy it really. For the future of racing it’s very important. Hopefully it will be brilliant.

4.51PM

Crowd numbers set to increase in September

The government is due to issue new guidelines on attendances at race meetings later this week and it’s widely anticipated that at least next month’s Irish Champions Weekend and Listowel's Harvest Festival will get the 5,000 a day allocation they have requested.

2.28PM

Sorcha Woods

Losing my ten-pounds claim has been an important milestone for me this year and I couldn’t have asked for any more in my first season with a licence on the track. I had ridden in point-to-points before that and rode a winner last year but to get my first winner on the Flat in my first year and now have three, is extremely satisfying.

11.12AM

Where have all the sponsors gone?

The recently released half-year figures for Irish horse racing from HRI showed positive trends in a number of key indicators to the health of the sport - Horses in training up 24% (compared to same period in 2019), active owners up 23.9%, runners in races up 23.8% - but one area where the sport took a massive dip was in race sponsorship.

12.29PM

Shane Kelly

It has been an unbelievable year so far, losing my claim, riding my first winner for Godolphin and then last week, riding my first two group winners in the space of 24 hours. That was just surreal.

10.09AM

Racing Needs Crowds

24,000 at Croke Park on Saturday - 2,000 of them on the terraced Hill 16 - is the latest knock-back for horse racing.

11.01AM

Paul Hensey

Sunday was a wonderful day. To return to the Curragh, where I was manager for 14 years, as chief operating officer of Al Shaqab Racing, to have a Group 1 winner was out of this world, as Ebro River bagged the Keeneland Phoenix Stakes. It was my first time racing in Ireland in almost two years so it was a marvellous day.

11.51AM

Lucky Dip

The random horse selection process for the show jumping element of the Modern Pentathlon caused a storm last week when it robbed Ireland's Natalya Coyle of a chance to medal at the Olympics. You would have to feel for Natalya as this was her last realistic chance of an Olympic podium finish but at least with this lucky dip allocation system there’s no discernible physical risk attached to the horse you draw.

12.02PM

Wesley Joyce

I was buzzing and completely over the moon after winning the feature race at Galway on Saturday, the €60,000 Galway Shopping Centre Handicap on Crowns Major for Emmet Mullins. It was the biggest success of my career so far. I was very happy to get the ride on him and thankfully it worked out brilliantly.

12.25PM

Aurora Princess

Galway carried on the recent trend we have seen in Irish racing where negative stories jump across into mainstream news at will but the positive racing stories fail to register at all.

12.43PM