Article Category: Sport of Kings

LUKE COMER’S LONG SHOT

September 7, 2023

MONEYBAGS DEVELOPER Luke Comer holds the record in Ireland for training the longest-priced winner, He Knows No Fear, having won at Leopardstown three... Read more »

---

TIM HYDE’S TREATMENT

September 7, 2023

TIMMY HYDE is best known as the custodian of the famed Camas Park Stud near Cashel and is recognised as one of the... Read more »

---

DUKE’S HEAVY GOING

August 24, 2023
CURRAGH TRAINER Brendan Duke has an ugly battle on his hands to remain in situ in his rented training yard (see p5). The High... Read more »

---

COOLMORE’S FAMOUS FIVE

August 24, 2023

FOUR YEARS ago, Swiss billionaire Georg von Opel made some seven-figure purchases of prime horseflesh at Irish sales under his thoroughbred investment vehicle,... Read more »

---

SHEIKH FAHAD’S BARGAIN

August 10, 2023

IT WAS around this time last year that British bloodstock agent Richard Knight began his $20m spending spree at yearling sales in Ireland,... Read more »

---

CATHAL BYRNES BRISTLES

August 10, 2023

WHEN THE referrals committee of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) ruled that jockey Gearoid Brouder had tested positive for a metabolite of... Read more »

---

SHARK ATTACKS GALWAY

July 27, 2023

WELL-KNOWN trainer John ‘Shark’ Hanlon must be increasingly focused trying to land back-to-back runnings of the Galway Plate with stable-star and bargain extraordinaire... Read more »

---

WHAT ABOUT SUNDAY?

July 27, 2023

FANS OF racing investment syndicates might be wondering what is going on at the All About Sunday racing club, which offers micro ownership... Read more »

---

BARONESS BAMFORD’S BLUES

July 13, 2023

THE GROUP 1 Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh is a race that is becoming known for the wrong reasons. Last year, there... Read more »

---

THE LYONS’ DEN

July 13, 2023

THE CURRAGH hosted British racing broadcaster Nick Luck’s usually entertaining Luck On Sunday show live from the track on Irish Derby morning and... Read more »

---

FINNEGAN’S WAKE

June 29, 2023

GOLDHAWK was surprised at the minimal coverage of an interesting ruling by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) appeals body, chaired by barrister... Read more »

---

BITTERSWEET WEEK

June 29, 2023

IT COMES as a surprise to many racing fans that multiple champion jockey Colin Keane only rode his first Royal Ascot winner last... Read more »

---

SLOW START FOR LYONS

June 15, 2023

THE IRISH flat season is in full swing and one of the main talking points has been the absence of Ger Lyons-trained horses... Read more »

---

WHELAN’S WHIP WOES

June 15, 2023

KILDARE JOCKEY Ronan Whelan has enjoyed a fine start to the flat season but his momentum has been stalled after racking up a... Read more »

---

MEDIA STRUCK DUMB BY NORTH RESULTS

June 1, 2023

The results of May’s council elections in the north confirmed, as expected, SF’s political dominance, which it displayed in last year’s assembly election.... Read more »

---

KEVIN DOYLE’S MISS-HIT

June 1, 2023

IT HAS been interesting to follow the progress, or indeed lack thereof, of a horse now named Montecam. Readers may recall that former... Read more »

---

AIDAN O’BRIEN’S HANDICAP

June 1, 2023

THE DEATH of Galileo two years ago was a seismic day for the international bloodstock industry and it is now becoming apparent just... Read more »

---

JP’S ‘MYSTICAL POWER’

June 1, 2023

JP McManus recently marked a milestone at his Martinstown Stud with the 31st birthday of his triple champion hurdle winner Istabraq. The former... Read more »

---

TIME FOR A STEWARDS’ INQUIRY?

June 1, 2023

A FEW weekends ago there were some stewarding decisions that left punters wondering if the acting stewards were watching the same races as... Read more »

---

BLACKMORE’S TACTICS

May 18, 2023

STAR JOCKEY Rachael Blackmore is clearly the leading lady of Irish racing but she fluffed her lines at Kilbeggan last week. Blackmore was... Read more »

---

EDDIE AHERN’S COMEBACK

May 18, 2023

EDDIE AHERN, the champion apprentice jockey in Ireland in 1997, who has been banned from riding for the last 10 years, is set... Read more »

---

UNDER STARTER’S ORDERS

May 18, 2023

BEING A national hunt race starter can be an unenviable position, given that trying to get upwards of 25 adrenaline-fuelled horses and jockeys... Read more »

---

JESSICA HANDICAPS THE HANDICAPPERS

May 18, 2023

IT WAS the handicappers rather than the starters who featured at an appeal hearing last week chaired by barrister Ian Whelan, which resulted... Read more »

---

MICHAEL O’CALLAGHAN’S MISHAP

May 3, 2023

SPARE A thought for Kildare trainer Michael O’Callaghan, who has just moved into his new purpose-built training complex, which cost a fair few... Read more »

---

ELLIOTT’S SADDLES

May 3, 2023

HOT ON the hooves of his recent cock-up at Navan (see The Phoenix 21/4/23), Gordon Elliott fell foul at Punchestown when putting the... Read more »

---

DANNY’S WHIP HAND

May 3, 2023

ANOTHER EXAMPLE of the disparity of racing rules between Irish and British jurisdictions (see ‘Bradley Gibbs’s Gripes’) was evident last week. At Punchestown,... Read more »

---

BRADLEY GIBBS’S GRIPES

May 3, 2023

PUNCHESTOWN IS often referred to as Ireland’s version of Cheltenham and many UK owners and trainers try to beat the Irish on home... Read more »

---

MAGNIER’S COSTLY FILLY

April 19, 2023

THE OLD adage of breeding the best to the best and hoping for the best is as good a guide as any to... Read more »

---

DEVELOPERS’ WINNING WAYS

April 19, 2023

PROPERTY DEVELOPERS Sean Deane and Ger O’Brien have experienced highs and low in their business careers but have rarely enjoyed anything but good... Read more »

---

ELLIOTT’S ID FARCE

April 19, 2023

GORDON ELLIOTT was summoned before an Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) referrals committee recently to explain how a significant mix-up in his yard... Read more »

---

NOEL MEADE’S PARTNER

April 19, 2023

THE PAST 10 years have seen a number of predominantly Wexford-based point-to-point trainers revolutionise the point-to-point game from what was an amateur discipline... Read more »

---

AINTREE’S GREEN TINGE

April 6, 2023

IRISH-TRAINED horses have won the last four runnings of the Aintree Grand National and it looks short odds that they will make it... Read more »

---

NO LIFE IN THE PARK

April 6, 2023

THE INCONSISTENCY of race-day stewards was evident again recently after a valuable Grade 3 novice chase in Limerick. The race in question was... Read more »

---

ITHAKA’S GAMBLE

April 6, 2023

WITH RONAN McNally’s imminent appeal hearing over his 12-year suspension, an ex-horse of his, Ithaka, landed a tidy gamble in England recently. The... Read more »

---

O’LEARY’S NAMING GAME

April 6, 2023

MICK O’LEARY performed a U-turn last year by investing in some young national hunt horses to be trained by Willie Mullins, one of... Read more »

---

ELLMARIE’S STRONG MEDICINE

March 23, 2023

THE IRISH Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) has made it very clear in recent years that maintaining up-to-date records of all medications administered to... Read more »

---