Article Category: Sport of Kings

GAMBLE THAT NEVER WAS

November 17, 2022

A LOT of gambles are overhyped and often even invented by bookies to get ordinary punters to jump on the bandwagon and lash... Read more »

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PAUL BYRNE’S NEW NAG

November 2, 2022

WHEN TRAINER Emmett Mullins teams up with owner pal Paul Byrne for a horse deal, punters tend to take notice. They pulled off... Read more »

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KEELING’S PLAN STUMBLES

November 2, 2022

WHEN MONEYBAGS Joe Keeling and his ‘Friends of the Curragh’ proposed to boost the prize money to €600,000 for the Irish Cesarewitch at... Read more »

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SHARK’S YANKEE DOLLARS

November 2, 2022

NOT ONLY did John Shark Hanlon plunder America’s most prestigious jumps contest when his bargain buy, Hewick, landed the $250,000 American Grand National... Read more »

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ANDREW HOGAN’S HEAVY GOING

November 2, 2022

THE PROPOSED all-weather track development at Tipperary racecourse has suffered a potential setback in the form of a spanner lobbed into the planning... Read more »

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JOHN EGAN’S APOLOGY

October 19, 2022

VETERAN IRISH jockey John Egan has enjoyed something of a renaissance in his riding career over the past few seasons in Britain, where... Read more »

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O’CALLAGHAN’S CRYPTO LOSS

October 19, 2022

TRAINING FOR Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing delivers access to some top-class horses but it also brings plenty of headaches when it comes to... Read more »

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PHOTO FINISH FOR TITLE

October 19, 2022

JOCKEY COLIN Keane started the flat season back in March as the heavy favourite to land his third champion title in a row... Read more »

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MAGNANIMOUS MAGNIER

October 19, 2022

GIVEN THE focus on high inflation figures and the impact on the cost of living, it is unclear to some observers whether the... Read more »

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O’LOUGHLIN’S ROUGH RIDE

October 6, 2022

THE NEW chief executive of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB), Darragh O’Loughlin, had his first experience of sitting in the Oireachtas hot... Read more »

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EADE IN THE SADDLE

October 6, 2022

HORSE RACING Ireland (HRI) chief executive Suzanne Eade also felt the heat of the public accounts committee chinwag last month, with questions about... Read more »

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MAHON’S SETBACKS

October 6, 2022

STEPHEN MAHON – the star witness in Paul Kimmage’s Sunday Indo series of allegations of widespread doping in horse-racing circles published earlier this... Read more »

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BIG BOYS’ BIG POT

October 6, 2022

THE CURRAGH’S revamped weekend of racing, which included the Goffs Million and the €600,000 Friends of The Curragh Irish Cesarewitch handicap, was hailed... Read more »

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JP’S ROUGH RIDE

September 22, 2022

JP MCMANUS may well be the self-appointed patron saint of Irish racing courtesy of the millions he spends every year on training fees... Read more »

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HUSBANDS’S HANDICAP

September 22, 2022

IRISH CHAMPIONS Weekend may have been a success from a racing point of view, with top-quality action over the two days at Leopardstown... Read more »

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EMPTY SADDLE AT AIR

September 22, 2022

ANOTHER SENIOR racing administrator has announced that he is to dismount. Paddy Walsh, chief executive of the Association of Irish Racecourses (AIR), has... Read more »

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O’LEARY SHAKING UP OWNERS’ CONTEST

September 22, 2022

AS HE does every year, Michael O’Leary offloaded a good few of his lesser-performing horses at a Goffs UK sale recently. The Ryanair... Read more »

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RYAN McELLIGOTT’S NEW JOB?

September 8, 2022

AFTER 10 years as head of the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association (IRTA), Michael Grassick is set to dismount. Although there has been no... Read more »

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COAKLEY COMES A CROPPER

September 8, 2022

YOUNG IRISH jockey Ross Coakley’s career has been on an upward curve since he relocated to England last year but the rider’s momentum... Read more »

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MURPHY’S LAW

September 8, 2022

IT HAS been reported that Cork trainer John Joseph Murphy was recently fined €4,000 by the referrals committee of Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board... Read more »

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RYAN OUT OF AMO

September 8, 2022

IT HAS been an eventful week for Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing. The increasingly familiar ownership group, run by the UK-based football investor, has... Read more »

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SHEIKH MOHAMMED’S IRISH EXIT

August 25, 2022

THE DECISION by Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum’s Godolphin racing operation to cease having horses trained in Ireland from the end of this year... Read more »

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O’GORMAN’S GOOD CALL

August 25, 2022

TRAINERS ARE often quick to criticise the handicapper when they feel their horses are unfairly penalised by the ratings. More often than not,... Read more »

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GOING GOOD FOR HUSBANDS

August 25, 2022

A MONTH ago, the Irish Champion Stakes was in poor enough shape, without a sponsor and potentially lacking a marquee horse, either domestic... Read more »

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MCNALLY’S FINE RESULT

August 25, 2022

WHEN TRAINER Ronan McNally and jockey Kevin Sexton got into trouble with the stewards at Limerick over the running and riding of Ithaka... Read more »

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CALDWELL’S HEAVY GOING

August 11, 2022

WITH THE Irish Stable Staff Association (ISSA) having generated headlines last month by delaying racing at Kilbeggan racecourse due to a protest over... Read more »

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TOM KELLY’S SECOND CHANCE

August 11, 2022

HERE WAS good news for jockey Tom Joseph Kelly last month when his appeal against a further three years of suspension proved successful.... Read more »

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DANIEL DUNNE’S ROUGH RIDING

July 28, 2022

DANIEL DUNNE, who was representing Katy Brown at Dundalk earlier this summer, may not be a household name when it comes to racing,... Read more »

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O’BRIENS QUALIFY FOR PRIZE POT

July 28, 2022

READERS OF ‘Sport of Kings’ will recall questions being raised here about the use of auctions essentially to qualify horses for restricted races,... Read more »

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DUNICAN VERSUS CALDWELL

July 28, 2022

THE HEAT wave took its toll at Kilbeggan recently, as tempers flared among stable staff with track manager Paddy Dunican and his failure... Read more »

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GOING GOOD IN GALWAY

July 28, 2022

THE BUZZ will be back for the Ballybrit 2022 races as punters are allowed to attend the festival for the first time in... Read more »

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O’BRIEN’S AMERICAN DREAM

July 14, 2022

HAVING PLUNDERED some major international Group 1 prizes in Australia and America last year, Joseph O’Brien‘s horses are on the up. Now the... Read more »

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MICK BAILEY BACK ON TRACK

July 14, 2022

AN INTERESTING recent returnee to racehorse ownership in Ireland is one Mick Bailey of Bovale Developments. A prominent owner during the Celtic Tiger... Read more »

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RONAN MCNALLY’S FORM

July 14, 2022

THE TRAINER Ronan McNally has had his fair share of setbacks when he trains a winner. Some wins have coincided with either a... Read more »

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A HEADACHE FOR TIM HUSBANDS

July 14, 2022

IT APPEARS that for the third year in a row the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown – arguably Ireland’s premier flat race –... Read more »

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O’CALLAGHAN’S MIXED WEEK

June 30, 2022

CURRAGH TRAINER Michael O’Callaghan certainly endured the highs and lows of Royal Ascot week and despite the majority of his horses running below... Read more »

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