Month: February 2016

CHELTENHAM, RACING, RACING TIPSLeave a comment

The dream is the same for all regardless of resources

Brendan

Please forgive the fact that a piece very similar to this appeared in this space at the same time last year. Indeed, comparable offerings could reasonably be put together around now during every National Hunt racing season. Now read on…
Some will doubtless scoff at such an assertion in the case of people like #WillieMullins and #RichRicci. But the headline is essentially true – when it comes to getting a horse to the #Cheltenham Festival, the ups and downs of racing impose themselves on folk within the fraternity whether they have one horse or a hundred. Continue reading “The dream is the same for all regardless of resources”

GAALeave a comment

The bottom line: to fans, it’s the sport that matters

Brendan

It was probably during the winter of 1994 that, even in terms of #GAA, my sporting horizons began to broaden. The back end of that year was, you see, spent following the escapades of Seneschalstown in the #Leinster Club SFC. Throughout games against Sarsfields of #Kildare, St Joseph’s from #Laois and #Dublin’s Kilmacud Crokes. Continue reading “The bottom line: to fans, it’s the sport that matters”

IRELAND, RACING, RUGBYLeave a comment

Altered perspectives on many fronts

Brendan

In times of greatest strife, the greatest buffers against ill winds have always come via sport and farming. And, in the course of the one week lately, quantities of resilience were tested to the end of elastic point. Owing to a trying shift in personal circumstances and, equally as profoundly, the almost indescribable grief and sadness felt at the passing of a very dear friend, the late Peter A Ward (Aidan).

Horse trainer Jim Dreaper Continue reading “Altered perspectives on many fronts”

RACINGLeave a comment

Grateful to witness history again

Brendan

What’s your earliest #Cheltenham memory? For me, that’s a bit of a tricky question. In one sense, it was the unforgettable day that #DawnRun did indeed begin to get up and claim the #GoldCup. Your columnist hadn’t yet turned five years old, but, Sir Peter O’Sullevan’s dulcet tones conveyed utter drama as one was stricken in a hospital bed following major surgery. Continue reading “Grateful to witness history again”