Category: RACING
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Kennedy a major Festival doubt
Jack Kennedy has emerged as a serious doubt for this year’s Cheltenham Festival having sustained a significant leg injury following a fall from Top Bandit in a novice chase at Naas on Sunday. Gordon Elliott trains Top Bandit and he said the jockey faces being sidelined for the “Foreseeable future” owing to what is by…
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Mrs Phil Leonard – R.I.P.
I was so very sad to hear of the passing of Phil Leonard yesterday. I first got to know Noel properly at the time of the 1999 Local Elections and have been privileged to visit their home on numerous occasions over the years since. Like their late neighbour Vincent Poleon, the fact the wheelchair couldn’t…
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Trusting your own judgement and reserving it on others
One of the perhaps lesser known drawbacks of dealing with depression, or indeed any mental health difficulty is the ferocity and rapidity with which it can decimate a body’s confidence. Conversely, it can then take millennia to rebuild. Thus, having got myself physically and mentally strong enough to go to the Fairyhouse Winter Festival, there…
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Quiet legend Manning goes out on a high note
An era ended in Ballybrit this afternoon when the quiet legend of the Irish Flat weighroom, Kevin Manning, called time on his illustrious glory-laden career in the saddle. Fittingly going out on a winner prepared by his father-in-law and boss, Jim Bolger. Vocal Studies carrying the colours of Jim’s wife Jackie, as so many of…
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A town divided in celebration!
After the euphoria conveyed in the last offering in this space relating to Dunboyne’s victory in the Junior Hurling Championship, in a way, this is chapter two of the same story. Initially, one had felt quite low at Act II coming to fruition. Not out of bitterness or begrudgery, just because of feeling removed from…
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A poignant thought provoking day
Reliance on or repetition of clichés is one of the greatest foibles in this business. Yet sometimes they are unavoidable. Hereafter details one such of those days… ‘Horses for courses’ is one which, naturally enough, has its origins in horse racing. Though it has readily morphed into being useful in many other facets of life.…
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Racing’s revolving doors
‘Form lines’ is a phrase often deployed in horse racing. Generally in reference to competing steeds who have crossed paths previously. It tends, also, to be put to use in team sports where two entities develop a rivalry over time. The line’s appearance here has nothing to do with either of the examples utilised thus…
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Sorry Ma’m – there doesn’t appear to be any racing on the TV in the Royal Box
When you hear the words ‘Barbers Shop’, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Haircuts, obviously. Or possibly musical quartets. Though not necessarily those including Homer Simpson on the roof of Moe’s or Peter Griffin going around hospital wards. In this corner, mention of Barbers Shop evokes memories of what I think was Queen…
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Jack De Bromhead – R. I. P.
For many of us, sport consumes and envelopes so much of our lives that it can be very easy, and dangerous, to lose sight of the fact that it is just that. Only Sport. The shot that looked over but was waved wide, the putt which circled the hole but lipped out or the punt…
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There’s always something to make you think twice
Willie Mullins recently ran a horse in a bumper owned by the Curb Your Enthusiasm Syndicate. Whether the steed won or not cannot be recalled, but is not relevant to the remainder of what you will read hereafter. Now read on… When I got into farming in my own right nearly a decade ago, one…