Category: RACING
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Suspect charged with Hunt family murders
A 26-year-old male has appeared in court in Cambridge, England, charged with the murders of the wife and two daughters of BBC and Sky Sports Racing commentator and broadcaster John Hunt on July 9th last. Kyle Clifford, of Enfield, North London, was thought to be the boyfriend of Louise Hunt (25) either at or shortly…
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Trying to convince myself to never say never
In the summer of 2015, my brother gave a local farmer a dig out for about two months in total actually. From the time they started the spring ploughing and sowing until the first cut silage and hay was all done. Some 23 years after they had originally parted ways. For me, this was as…
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Einstein was a fairly smart fella – some people would do well to heed him
Say what you like about people like JP McManus and Michael O’Leary, through their input to and support of horse racing – and in the case of the former many other things besides – they contribute extraordinarily to the Irish economy. That is not to say, though, that both are anything other than ruthlessly efficient…
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Selections for Dundalk – Nov. 29th 2024
5.00: WILLIAM F. BROWNE (GARY CARROLL/GER LYONS) 5.30: SACRED OATH (CHRIS HAYES/DERMOT WELD) 6.00: AVIATRICE (LUKE MCATEER/DAVID MARNANE) 6.30: ELEGANT MADAME – EW – (BILLY LEE/ADRIAN MURRAY) 7.00: ASCENDING (BILLY LEE/HENRY DE BROMHEAD) 7.30: CROSS BORDER (ROBERT WHEARTY/GAVIN CROMWELL) 8.00: NUMIDIA (RORY MULLIGAN (7)/PETER LAWLOR) 8.30: EIGHTY EIGHT – EW – (RORY MULLIGAN (7)/JOHNNY FEANE)
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Dempsey departure another illustration of the same problem
A Grade 2 Novice Chase at Punchestown on a Saturday. One of the prestigious novice chases in the Irish racing calendar. Total prize pot of €36,500, of which €21,900 went to the winner. Looks a glossy product and an easy sell so far, right? Wrong. Three runners. One trainer. One owner. Then there are those…
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Grande outcome for Martin as Alphonse gets big pot back
Those of us who reckon Tony Martin was due a change of luck and indeed the man himself finally got a ball to break in the right direction. With today’s news that the decision to strip Alphonse Le Grande of the Cesarewitch Handicap was overturned on appeal earlier this week. The progressive handicapper was first…
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Keane cool as ice as Magnum is the cream of the crop
There are very few current jockeys who could replicate Paul Carberry in terms of riding style. In terms of other things, that’s probably a good thing, but, as for the rudiments of the day job, only Keith Donoghue goes anywhere close. And he was moulded by ‘Alice’ himself. There was also something Carberry-esque about Padraig…
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Selections for Clonmel – Oct. 24th 2024
1.53: MACHISSMO (SAM EWING/GORDON ELLIOTT) 2.28: STRAIGHT HOME (PATRICK MULLINS/WILLIE MULLINS) 3.03: WHISPERING HOPES – EW – (JORDAN GAINFORD/GORDON ELLIOTT) 3.38: CARLA’S BIG JIM – EW – (JOHN SHINNICK (5)/LEN ARCHDEACON) 4.13: SHECOULDBEANYTHING (SAM EWING/GORDON ELLIOTT) 4.48: AH REMY MARTIN (DARRAGH O’KEEFFE/TOM GIBNEY) 5.23: FINNIAN’S ROW – EW – (PADDY O’BRIEN (7)/DERMOT MCLOUGHLIN)
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There are very few squeaky clean closets
A few years back, on what I think was the first evening of the Galway Races, a trainer who had just seen his steed come up the Ballybrit hill in front was heard to remark “At least my horses come here on their merits, not like others who work the system to their advantage”. You…
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They did it their way!
“Don’t ever f*****g tell me how to ride a horse again”. There’s not many lines of work in which one could so vehementally rail against instructions dispensed by an employer and hope to survive such a skirmish. You couldn’t exactly imagine WP Mullins or PF Nicholls or AP O’Brien reacting as serenely as the berated…