Latest Blogs from Vincent Finegan and "My Racing Story"

Record-breaking National Hunt season for Willie Mullins

The Punchestown Festival is a brilliant way to end the National Hunt season each year. A five-day long party that manages to achieve the right blend between the business, the sport and the fun of a day at the races.

9.58AM

Paul Flynn

I'm from Celbridge and my father was reared up in Moyglare Stud. He mainly worked in Ballygordon Stud (now Derrinstown) when I was growing up and I always went to work with him when I could. I just had a keen interest from the start. There was no riding or anything like that, just helping him out. I used to follow him around for a good few years until I met David Behan who was a jockey. He put me up on the donkey, so I started riding he donkey up and down the road. I went to David Behan every day after school then.

10.52AM

How much is a horse’s performance improved by the whip?

There was an interesting comment posted below my blog last week in relation to the Grand National protest that got me thinking about the whole whip issue and if it’s about time the industry did a proper study into its merits.

12.43PM

Diarmuid Moloney

I'm 24 and from Ardnacrusha in Co Clare. I'm based at home with my parents and twin sister. They wouldn't have had a great interest in racing before I started riding but they follow it closely now and are great supporters of mine.

11.42AM

Saturday’s protests a wake up call for the sport

For some reason the Irish as a nation struggle with the concept of protest. No matter how unjust or ludicrous Government policies are we prefer to grumble about it amongst ourselves rather than take to the streets in mass protest.

11.31AM

George Kingston

I'm from just outside Drogheda in Co Louth. My parents would have gone racing when I was young and would have had plenty of friends at the races, so that's how I started going. I started riding a pony for a local man, Maxie Collins, and he would be well known in coursing and greyhounds, and as a bookie at the point-to-points. Maxie always had horses and I started riding his pony when I was a child.

10.06AM

Records are there to be broken

The US Masters Golf was a great watch last week despite the persistent weather interruptions. The best golfers on the planet competing on one of the best courses is only a part of what makes the Masters so special. The myriad of unique traditions that are associated with the event are what really elevates it to its iconic status.

12.48PM

Mpumelelo Mjoka

I'm 26 years of age and from Durban and am called Mpumi by those who know me.

10.24AM

Betting Matters

The Dundalk stewards took an unusual course of action following a race at the track on Friday evening. They initially enquired into the improvement in form of the Charles Byrnes’ trained Miss Abby Jools after it won a handicap. This is standard practice and 99% of the time ends up with the stewards noting the explanations given by connections, but on this occasion they referred the matter to a Senior Racing Official of the IHRB for further investigation.

11.23AM

Neve Bennett

I'm from Newent, a town in Gloucestershire, England. I got into racing through my mother as she always had something to do with horses and there were horses on the farm that I used to go to. I was involved with horses from about 11 or 12. When I was older, I saw an advert up for the British Racing School in Newmarket, so I went up there and did the course. It was a good experience and I was glad to get a job after it.

9.47AM

Good luck to Bryan Cooper

The mandatory requirements of having to wear a helmet and back-protector and also having two ambulances follow you around while doing your job paints a clear picture of how dangerous the life of a jockey is.

11.37AM

Jack Kearney

I'm 17 and joined Ger Lyons last August as stable apprentice. They look after me very well and it's very exciting to be involved in such a top yard.

2.27PM

Hurdles or fences for Constitution Hill?

Last week’s Cheltenham Festival provided us with some amount of drama, stunning performances and shock results in almost equal measure.

2.26PM

Ruth Morrison

I grew up on a small farm in Dromore surrounded by horses. From a young age I had no real interest - there was always stories dad would come home from the hunt with about broken legs and cuts. So I thought I would stick with hockey. Mum was keen to maybe have a girly girl, she was keen on music or dancing. That was never really going to happen. Then as I got a little bit older, i got more involved. My dad was Field Master and Point-To-Point Secretary for the Iveaghs. I got involved in helping out at the point-to-points which i loved. I was selling racecards from when I was no age.

10.23AM

The best week of the year

Cheltenham is finally upon us. The build up seems to get longer and longer each year, but fortunately the Festival always lives up to the hype. The best four days racing of the year, bar none.

1.06PM

Aidan Kelly

I'm 21, was born and reared in Monasterevin and still live at home with my parents and my brother. They are all great supporters of mine and are the first ones on the phone when I have a winner.

9.34AM

An Absolute Freak

Barry Connell gave a very refreshing interview to At The Races last week about the chances of Marine Nationale in the Supreme Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham. Most trainers tend to be quite guarded about the chances of their horses ahead of these big races and end up using a string of cliches that leave you none the wiser to what they really think.

1.59PM

Paddy Orr

I'm from Blackrock, Co Dublin and my father was a bookmaker, so I started going racing with my dad when I was about 14 or 15. Watching racing with my dad, and coming home and getting the results on the radio sparked my interest in racing. I was on the box giving tickets to punters and helping to pay out if I could. I clerked for him from a very young age. I used to do a lot of point-to-pointing with my dad, which I absolutely loved, around the country especially around the south-east. That took me to working for several bookmakers along the way.

10.12AM

Disgruntled Punters

News in the Irish Times last week that Arena Racing Company (ARC) is in negotiations to buy Dundalk Racecourse has the potential to further complicate an already precarious Media Rights situation for the sport.

10.54AM

Richard O'Brien

I qualified as a dentist but it was always a lifetime ambition to train racehorses and I've managed to unearth some smart performers along the way. I took out a licence in late 2016 and am based in Ballingarry, Co Limerick.

2.54PM

Whipping up a storm

UK racing has really got itself into a proper old mess over the use of the whip and it’s all largely its own fault.

11.23AM

Elliott fine was appropriate sanction

Gordon Elliott ran 60 horses at the Cheltenham Festival last year and there were no issues with 59 of them, but that doesn’t matter to a significant cohort of the public who have been up in arms over a positive sample taken from Zanahiyr after the horse finished third in the Champion Hurdle.

12.39PM

Garvan Donnelly

We're all enjoying the journey with Final Orders and obviously he's been a revelation over fences. I used to train him myself and we schooled him once over fences at my place. The young lad who rode him said he'd never ridden anything like him over a fence.

2.20PM

Sandra Hughes

I was born and bred on the Curragh and my dad was Dessie Hughes the horse trainer. When I was younger, I got married and moved away to England, had children and returned home about 17 years ago. I came home with the three children and started working with my dad straight away. In the early days, I took a prominent role in the office on the business side of things. Then as the years went on, I would have taken more of a role in supporting him and going to race meetings and sales he couldn't get to.

10.11AM

12 years for Ronan McNally

I've been around horse racing all my life and at this stage it’s not too often that I’m overly surprised by anything, but Tuesday’s verdicts in the Ronan McNally Referral case certainly stunned me.

11.39AM

No stopping Willie Mullins

Willie Mullins hit his latest career milestone over the weekend when he trained his 4,000th winner. He is only the second Irish trainer to do so after Dermot Weld achieved the same landmark in 2016.

11.29AM

Robert Whearty

I'll be nineteen this year and am from Bellewstown in Co Meath. My first winner came at the local track and luckily I have a good strike-rate there. That was on Pretty Little Liar for David Dunne in July 2021 and was not long after I had taken out my licence.

9.46AM

‘Hay’ How are ya!

It’s great to see the racing industry coming together to support the ‘Hay’ How are ya campaign to raise awareness of mental health issues within the equestrian community and help eliminate the stigma associated with depression.

10.30AM

Jim Gorman

I'm from the Navan Road, Ashtown, Co Dublin and there were a lot of horses trained in the Phoenix Park at the time. When you were a kid going to the Phoenix Park races, it was very glamorous. It was a lovely way of life in the 60s. The course was idyllic, it was like old Victorian and beautiful, and it was very popular with Dubliners. They got big, big crowds.

10.05AM

Niall Moore

Gortnahoe in north Tipperary is my homeplace and I'm from a very sporty family.

9.40AM

Jack Kennedy deserves a change of luck

Jump racing can be such a tough sport. Jack Kennedy, who’s career has been blighted by injury, was flying on all fronts going into Sunday’s meeting at Naas. The 23-year-old was having his best season ever and was already 18 winners ahead of reigning champion Paul Townend in the race for the Jockeys Championship when disaster struck again.

1.28PM

Caroline McCaldin

I'm originally from Templepatrick, Co Antrim and my father Wilson Dennison has been into racing all his life, it is what we grew up with and were raised with. I evented and hunted all my life, and then had an accident in 2015 and was told I wouldn't ride again. I just didn't know what else to do, so I got into the racing. I had a good platform to start from with my father.

10.56AM

A Numbers Game

Leopardstown bucked the trend over Christmas with attendances over the four days up 6% compared to the pre-Covid numbers in 2019.

12.31PM

Mike O'Connor

I'm 21 and from the village of Curraglass in East Cork. We had ponies at home and my father started me off on them.

1.24PM

Andy Slattery

I'm from Cooldine, Killenaule and have been here all my life. My father was a jockey and he used to keep a few point-to-pointers. We had six stables at home. When I was young, he used to ride out for Adrian Maxwell and I used to go down with him and ride out at lunchtime when I was 11, 12 and 13. Then I did one season pony racing, I used to stay with John Egan up in Ballinasloe and rode about eight winners.

10.40AM

Suspending trainers’ licences

Following hot on the heels of the Ronan McNally case the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) issued two more Referral Committee Hearing results last week. Trainer Lee Smyth had his licence withdrawn for three months and fellow trainer Gearoid Brouder had his licence taken away for twelve months, with the last six months suspended.

1.21PM

Eoin Griffin

I'm from the village of Slieverue in south Kilkenny and we're only a few miles from Waterford city.

11.03AM

Ronan McNally Case

Last week the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) released the results of a two year investigation into the affairs of trainer Ronan McNally.

10.36AM

Andy McNamara

All my family would have been in racing - my dad trained, my brother Robbie, and we had cousins involved in it as well. John Thomas, my cousin, would have been older and his brother Aongus would have been riding as well. I would have gone racing all the time with dad training. Hunter trials were the biggest thing we were interested in and actually a few of the people I would have ridden with in hunter trials went on to ride a bit as well. My mother brought us everywhere to do hunter trials and hunting. Then I started riding out the racehorses fairly young.

10.03AM

Jump racing at its best is hard to beat

It was great to see Fairyhouse attracting good crowds over the weekend for their Winter Festival. 4,000 on Saturday and over 7,000 on Sunday. High quality National Hunt racing tends to do that and the Sunday card at Fairyhouse was one of the best we have seen for quite a while.

10.28AM

Ben Harvey

I've just turned 22 and things have gone really well this season with 14 winners on the board so far.

9.58AM

Dare to dream

I’ve been supporting the same football team for over 50 years but have never worn their shirt. Maybe that’s because the team is West Ham or maybe it says more about me. There have been times when I’ve thought I’d have been better off supporting the likes of Liverpool or Man Utd as down the years they’ve had a lot more to cheer about.

11.03AM

Lisa O'Connor

My first experience with Dundalk Stadium was actually in 2007 when I worked in the Tote. It was thrilling and I really enjoyed it. There weren't a lot of hours in the Tote, but I enjoyed that side of it so I ended up in Bar One Racing. I worked in the shops and I did the on-course shop at Dundalk Stadium. I worked for Bar One Racing until I left there in August 2014. I loved the work in the bookmakers, but it was long hours and weekends, and I have a family, so I actually got into business insurance. I worked my way up there and I enjoyed it. It was a stressful environment and I thrived on it, but nobody growing up says they want to sell insurance! I was in charge of sales and marketing and that is where I learned a lot of my business knowledge.

11.09AM

To run or not to run

It’s difficult to understand how two of the most successful trainers in the UK can have such differing views when it comes to running their horses on unsuitable ground.

12.50PM

Alana Insole

I grew up in Billericay in Essex and there weren’t many horses in that area but myself and my brother Jamie spent a lot of time in Ireland when we were young. My grandfather Vivian Kennedy was a jockey and then trainer on the Curragh and we always helped out in his yard when we went to Ireland on our holidays. He was a real inspiration to us and we both developed a passion for racing from that time.

9.31AM

Jump Racing - weather permitting

I love my National Hunt racing, but it can be very frustrating. Almost every day another top horse is ruled out of some race or other due to a setback. Then you have the weather issues that are becoming more and more of a problem for the sport with each passing season.

11.06AM

Ross O'Sullivan

I was born and bred on the Curragh and my parents were involved in racing all their lives. My father rode as a jockey and then worked for Mick O'Toole and also Con Collins before going to Kildangan Stud. My dad rode Height O'Fashion - she was second to Arkle in a photo finish in the Leopardstown Chase (in 1966). She had 9st 7lb and Arkle had 12st 7lb and that picture is still on the wall at home. My mother also worked for Mick O'Toole back in the heyday when he was having plenty of Cheltenham winners in the 1970s into the 80s. I suppose that is where the interest in racing probably started off. There were always ponies around at home.

10.58AM

A memorable week for horse racing

What a week it has been on the racing front, The Melbourne Cup, The Breeders’ Cup, top class jumps action at Down Royal, the end of the Flat season at Naas and of course Shark Hanlon bringing Hewick into a pub for a pint of Guinness.

10.18AM

Sean Davis

I’m excited to be going into a new business venture with my weighroom colleague Gary Halpin. We have rented Ulundi Lodge on the Lumville side of the Curragh from Kathleen Kennedy. Her late husband Vivian used to train from there and my former boss Michael O’Callaghan used it as a second yard in recent years.

10.04AM

Jamie Powell

I'm from Kildare Town, just outside the Curragh and I turned 20 in September. I have a family background in racing - my dad and both my grandads were jockeys. My grandfather, Peadar Matthews, won a couple of Classics and my dad, Anthony Powell, won the Irish Grand National on Maid Of Money in 1989. I got into racing through the Racing Academy and Centre of Education (RACE), actually. I had no racing background, as in riding, as I had never ridden racehorses or anything like that as a child. I sat on ponies a bit at a riding school as a child, but I had never sat on a thoroughbred or been in a racing yard and ridden racehorses until I was 16 or 17.

9.46AM