Latest Blogs from Vincent Finegan and "My Racing Story"

Petrol Head

Last Thursday shortly after 12 o’clock my dreams were dashed when I saw a red line through the name of Petrol Head in the list of runners for the Guinness Galway Hurdle.

1.21PM

HRI moves to address National Hunt imbalance

Last week Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) announced a new series of National Hunt races beginning in January that specifically precludes horses trained by Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Henry De Bromhead and Gavin Cromwell from competing.

10.26AM

Racing is about more than just winners and losers

The vast majority of people that turn up at racing Festivals like Galway at the end of this month go for the craic. A couple of drinks, a few bets, a bite to eat, maybe a couple more drinks and a good day is generally had by all.

9.48AM

Hugh Morgan

I'm from Kilmacow in Co Kilkenny. We bred National Hunt and Flat horses on the home farm and there were jockeys throughout my family - my great-grandfather and grandfather were jockeys. I would have grown up watching a lot of racing. For me, it wasn't until my early teens that I got into racing. Up until then, I would have done showjumping for a small bit. When I was younger, athletics was my main thing. I did quite okay at the athletics and it was a decision whether to pursue a career at the athletics or not. Horses took over then. I went to Dick Brabazon on the Curragh and that's where my racing journey really started. He was a friend of the family and it was my first racing yard. It was a brief spell with Dick. He was a very good man, good for advice and very patient. Then when I went to Jim Bolger's, it was quite an eye-opener at the start. I never had a problem, though. You went in there and did your work and it was ingrained into you how to do the work.

11.43AM

Should amateur jockeys be paid?

I’ve always loved the story of Ireland’s first Gold medallist at the Olympics Games, Dubliner John Pius Boland, who competed at the inaugural modern games in 1896. He had travelled to Athens on holidays to simply watch the events, but upon hearing of poor numbers of entries for the Tennis he put his name down. He borrowed a racket, but couldn’t find tennis shoes to fit and played in leather shoes before going on to win gold medals in both the singles and doubles.

9.52AM

Deloitteful new ad campaign from HRI

During the past week I noticed a number of adverts appearing on my social media feeds promoting the social and economic impact of horse racing in different counties and regions of Ireland produced by Horse Racing Ireland (HRI).

9.56AM

Kathy McMullan

I live in Dromore, Co Down and I was born and reared in Downpatrick. From I was three years of age, I had my first pony - a wee Shetland called Crocus. My eldest sister would have show jumped. I jumped ponies until I was about 16 - I wouldn't have been hugely successful, to be honest, but I had a great interest. Then boys and life took over, and after a number of years my daughter Kayleigh came along. My parents still stayed involved with show jumping ponies and would have had people riding for them. My daughter immediately showed an interest in ponies. She got her first one at two and a-half.

11.47AM

No winners at Comer case Appeal

Last week the Appeals Body published their verdicts on the appeals made by Trainer Luke Comer and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) into the sanctions imposed on Comer at the original Referral Hearings.

11.29AM

Numbers Game

You have to hand it to British racing, with all the issues facing the sport across the water at the moment, they are still world leaders at putting on a show.

10.28AM

Nathan Crosse

I'm from Ballylooby, Co Tipperary and my dad was a jockey mainly in England and a little bit in America before moving home to Ireland. He was Head Lad to Tommy Stack for nine years and always pre-broke a couple of horses. My brother, Shane, was more interested in horses than I was. Shane wanted to start pony racing and I saw how much fun he was having with that and how much of a buzz he was getting off it. So, after a year of that, I started pony racing with a great pony that Billy and Jack Kennedy gave us called Pair Of Jack's. He actually got Jack going too. He used to get us off his back more times than we were on his back! He was a great pony to get us going. I also used to ride out in Tommy Stack's in the summer holidays and that.

12.03PM

Once a racehorse, always a racehorse

The Prime Time Investigates: ‘Horses - Making A Killing’ that aired on RTÉ last Wednesday was utterly shocking. The abuse of horses shown on the programme was nothing short of barbaric and I’m at a loss to understand how this could have taken place in a country where horses are as celebrated and prized as they are in Ireland.

10.16AM

Baptism of fire

The local council election results will have been well received by horse racing’s administrators with the main Government parties polling far better than expected.

10.45AM

Paul Callaghan

I am from Meath Hill which is a small townland based in north County Meath. I first got into racing through my father. On my father's side, everyone would have been interested in racing. I grew up the youngest of five and at that time the Fairyhouse Easter Festival was on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We used to go on Wednesday, it was family day and I absolutely loved it. From there, I started to broaden the horizons to Navan and Dundalk when it was a grass track. I even got up to Phoenix Park a couple of times and Sligo as well. I grew up on a farm and we had our holidays in Laytown. We used to go during race week. I loved both codes - Flat and National Hunt, but particularly fell in love with National Hunt racing. That all sparked my interest to be a National Hunt jockey. I started primary school at five and even then I knew I wanted to be a jockey.

10.11AM

The best is yet to come

What an incredible weekend it was for Irish horse racing with two absolute masters of the training ranks winning the Oaks and Derby at Epsom.

11.07AM

Five year plan

As the National Hunt season was wrapping up at Punchestown I headed away for a few weeks to Spain to recharge the batteries and take a short break from the sport.

11.35AM

Gillian Callaghan

I'm from Allenstown between Navan and Kells in Co Meath. I grew up there with my three older brothers and we were all involved in horses and ponies growing up. My dad bred and produced a lot of half-breds, so we broke ponies, hunted and did the usual pony club. They would have been produced and resold, and we worked hard at it. My dad still does a bit now as well. My brothers helped out in the yard and my older brother, Greg Harford, was into racing first. He was an amateur rider and he started off with Michael Cunningham and in his later years went to Noel Meade. He was a pretty successful amateur there. I used to go pointing and racing with Greg and that was how I got into racing.

11.06AM

Danny Gilligan

1.53PM

Racing audiences are getting younger

The British National Hunt season went out with a bang on Saturday at Sandown when Willie Mullins was crowned Champion British Trainer for the very first time.

10.30AM

Tom Harney

I'm from a place called Eadestown, just outside Naas, beside Punchestown racecourse. I had a pony when I was younger at home and I was kind of mad for a bit of speed! I got into Michael Halford's when I was 12 or 13. I rode out there on my school holidays and weekends for five years before I left school. There were some brilliant lads in Michael Halford's at the time like Sean Corby, who rode as an apprentice for a while, Shane Foley was stable jockey and Conor Hoban was apprentice there. You can see from Michael Halford's track record, he had some brilliant apprentices over the years including Gary Carroll. It was a great place to learn and I learned plenty. I was still very weak and green and I wasn't quite sure whether I was going to be good enough to be a jockey but, in fairness, it was the route for me. I had a crack at college in Carlow, but I didn't enjoy that - I only lasted about three weeks! I missed the horses a lot.

12.37PM

The Perfect Storm

Weather has always been the number one topic of conversation in Ireland which is most odd considering we don’t actually get extreme weather events like other countries and for the most part we don’t even have seasons.

10.31AM

Nothing to see here

Not a single faller in the Grand National has to be seen as a major triumph for those involved in tweaking with the great race to make it palatable for a modern audience.

9.59AM

Keithen Kennedy

I'm from Monasterevin, Co Kildare and I'm riding since I could walk really. My grandad used to have a few of his own horses. None of my family would really be into racing, but I got into riding ponies. Then, when I was about 11 or 12, I started pony racing which is a great place to start. It gives you loads of experience of race riding and gets your brain set up for the track. My cousin Aidan Melia supplied me with more than 20 winners pony racing. He was very good to me and got me going. I was all over the country pony racing up to Donegal and down to Kerry and sometimes over to Scotland as well. When I was about 11, I was in with trainer Seamus Fahey and he was very good to me. He got me going riding racehorses and gave me loads of experience riding work. I was always small when I was young and everyone used to tell me I should be a jockey. Thank God I stayed that way and my weight is good. I wouldn't wake up more than eight stone every morning. Hopefully, things stay like that.

8.22AM

British racing on the front foot with horsepwr website

Last week British horse racing launched an information portal to present the facts about the sport. Everything from horse fatalities, to doping and whip offences are covered in a clear and concise manner.

10.23AM

Alice Power

I'm from Lemybrien in Co Waterford and I started off on ponies, hunting and fun rides. My brother and I would race each other on the ponies. My mam and dad were very good to my brother and I as they brought us around all the hunts and all the fun rides they could. My mother and father both rode in point-to-points and trained horses. My mother's mother and father also rode point-to-points and my father's dad bred horses and trained greyhounds, so I was born and bred into the game. From the age of three, mother had me sitting up on racehorses at home, and I had a big smile on my face and absolutely loved it from day one. Sitting on a horse was what I loved. More or less I always wanted to be a jockey when I was growing up. I started riding out at home at the age of 14. My father (Walter Power) had maybe 15 horses in at the one time, training them for the track and point-to-points. It was a busy yard and, the same as anyone who grows up in a racing yard, you pick things up very quickly particularly watching my parents breaking horses, riding pieces of work and the training of racehorses. Basically the horsemanship of it all. It was a great grounding. When I went into transition year, I went into John Kiely's and Henry de Bromhead's and that was where I really got the bug for it.

1.06PM

Uncompetitive races are bad for the sport

There is no doubt that the concentration of all the best jumps horses in a handful of stables is having a profound effect on National Hunt racing in Ireland. Many races have become uncompetitive and this in turn has meant that many of the smaller stables are struggling to survive.

10.27AM

Irish dominance at Cheltenham causing concern

Julie Harrington, chief executive of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) issued a statement in the aftermath of Cheltenham that amounted to a rallying cry to her industry to take urgent steps to address the imbalance of Irish trainers winning 12 of the 14 Grade One races at the Festival.

11.03AM

Conor O'Dwyer

I'm from Wexford Town and I didn't have anything to do with horses or the horse industry initially - mum was a matron in Wexford General Hospital and dad was an accountant in a few different firms.

11.49AM

The best four days of entertainment

With a cohort of racing fans once again calling for Cheltenham to return to a three day Festival I thought it might be a bit of fun to take a break from all the form study and look back at what Cheltenham was really like when the Festival was done and dusted by Thursday afternoon.

11.00AM

One size fits all

The Constitution Hill saga has been fascinating to follow over the last week. Thanks to Nicky Henderson’s candour and daily updates I now know far more about the medical condition of a horse in Lambourn than I necessarily would about a close relative in Tallaght Hospital.

9.48AM

Camilla Sharples

I'm from north west England, Lancashire to be precise. I lived near a place called Lancaster which is near the Lake District. I've been involved with horses all my life. I grew up with them and did pony club, did riding club and did British eventing and British dressage. I was quite successful and did that all through school. I did quite well in my A Levels and I was supposed to go and do Marketing and Advertising at Lancaster University. I had a really good horse at the time and I decided I would take a gap year and event her. While I took my gap year, I went and worked in a local plumbing and heating company in the accounts department. I ended up doing that for two years. I deferred my entry for a year and then I got the bug of earning a bit of money and decided not to go to university! So I took another gap year but, while working in that company, I kept my horse in a livery yard. In the livery yard I became really good friends with a girl called Rebecca Menzies. She kept her horses on the livery yard and we became best pals.

10.45AM

Affordability Checks

If you believe the rhetoric coming from within the racing industry this will be a pivotal week for British horse racing as politicians are set to debate the proposed ‘affordability checks’ on punters in Westminster today (Monday 26 February).

10.52AM

The customer is always right

I was abroad when the Dublin Racing Festival (DRF) took place at Leopardstown at the beginning of the month, but was delighted to hear that the opening day on the Saturday had attracted a bumper crowd of just over 20,000, a record for the event, with a significant portion of the audience travelling over from the UK.

10.18AM

John McDonnell

I'm from Clonmel, Co Tipperary and I don't come from a racing background as such. Growing up through school, I always had a strong interest in racing in general. My mum and dad brought my brother and I racing through our teenage years. My dad was a primary school teacher, but he always had a good business head and he went into on-course bookmaking in 1999. That gave my brother and I purpose and a reason to be going racing. I think when dad took out his licence I was about 13 or 14 and we went point-to-pointing all over the country. Dad continued teaching and grew the business. He invested quite a bit into racecourse pitches right around Ireland. It is my brother's business now and my dad works with him.

12.33PM

Glen Norris

I'm from a village in Waterford called Lemybrien, just outside Dungarvan. My father bought us a pony when I was probably 10 or 11. I went to pony school and learned how to ride there. My father had an interest in horses. I loved the pony and rode the pony every day after school and even jumped the pony, but I became allergic to horse hair in the sense of eyes flaring up, sneezing, coughing and getting a rash. We moved the pony on, but it never left me. I always wanted to ride horses.

3.17PM

A different approach required

Race planning must be a thankless task at the best of times, but on occasions you have to wonder how much thought actually goes into it.

10.33AM

John McConnell

I'm from Kildare originally, a place called Two Mile House which is between Naas and Kilcullen. Both my parents were Dubs and migrated down to the sticks back in the 70s! We were very small-time breeders, maybe four or five mares as more of a sideline really. We had ponies and that was how the horses came into it. Michael O'Brien moved in beside us when I was seven or eight and we got to know him very well. I used to ride out for him in the summer time. He was a really good trainer. I had a strong interest in the racing anyway, but it brought my interest to the fore. Jessica Harrington would have taught me in pony club, she was obviously a very good eventer. She was a very, very good teacher and I have a lot of respect for her. Education was always drilled into us, so there was no way I was going to get out of going to college! My brother had already done veterinary. I considered other options, but I love animals and wanted to be a vet if nothing else. It became apparent from my teens that I wasn't going to be light enough to be a jockey. I had training in mind from a very young age. How I was going to get there was going to be a different story because my parents are Dubs and we had no history in the game.

11.26AM

Racing’s finances in a precarious position

The daily squabbles that are playing out within the British horse racing industry are reminiscent of watching one of those nature programmes on the TV following a pride of lions on the Serengeti.

10.53AM

Do as I say, not as I do

UK racing’s ‘Premierisation’ initiative has got off to a rocky start. Small fields for the first effort at Cheltenham last week was followed by something similar at the weekend at Plumpton and the first Sunday evening fixture at Wolverhampton has been slated by many working within the industry.

10.42AM

Jennifer Lynch

Our family home was in Kenagh, Co.Longford and my earliest memory was a photo of showjumping legend Eddie Macken and Boomerang hanging in my bedroom.

2.43PM

Thomas Coyle

I'm from a little village in Co Meath called Batterstown. I didn't have a background in horses, but my father had a farm and we always had a pony. I thought I was AP McCoy riding the pony around the place! My granny had a great passion for horses even though she never worked with them. She would always have a bet and we would go down to watch Channel 4 Racing on a Saturday when we were younger. From watching it with her, I kind of always said I wanted to be a jockey.

12.22PM

Mark Fahey

I'm from Cloneygath in Monasterevin, Co Kildare, and my family have been involved in racing the whole way through. We always had ponies at home and my dad is a farrier. We all live together along the road here. I took out my amateur licence at 16 and I stayed an amateur. I rode 50 odd winners as an amateur including two bumpers on Jezki (in 2012) for Jessica Harrington. I was lucky as an amateur. I got a great kick out of winning the Goffs Land Rover Bumper on Some Article at Punchestown (in April 2012). it was actually my uncle Paul who was a farrier in Tom Mullins' that rang me. He rang to see if I could the light weight and I said I could. It was a last-minute job how I got the ride. I was placed in the Land Rover Bumper a few times and it was great to get a good winner like that at a festival. I loved riding. When we were kids you were always busy with the football and the athletics as well too. My dad and mam were dragging me around the country doing all the football and the athletics. I never went down the pony racing route, just kicked on with ponies at home.

10.24AM

Environmental contamination is often the best defence

On Monday the 16th January 2023 trainer Tony Martin declared his horse Firstman to run in a two mile handicap at Dundalk.

11.35AM

Calum Hogan

I’m 17 and am in Leaving Cert year at Colaiste Na Trocaire in my hometown of Rathkeale. The plan is to stay going with school until the summer and the staff are very good to let me go racing as long as I can manage to do a few classes beforehand. My mam Rose is keen for me to stick with it although, if I had my way, I wouldn’t be there! I’d prefer to kick on full-time with my riding but it won’t be long before I can, I suppose.

9.26AM

Heavier than heavy

In this age of technology where we can split atoms and determine the winner of a race down to one one hundredth of a second you would have to wonder why horse racing perpetuates the use of an archaic system of describing the ground conditions at race meetings.

10.24AM

David Marnane

I was born in Bansha, Tipperary and my parents had a farm here, and originally had a pub and a B&B. My brother Con and I got into ponies when we were very young. My dad always loved the racing and, when he got a chance, he went to the sales and bought a couple of quite cheap horses. We had a local trainer Danny O'Connell and he trained them. I kind of went from riding ponies to seeing the horses running and I really liked the racing. Then Con came back from Australia and America and he started training a few of the horses after Danny, and I started riding out there for him when I was very young especially in the mornings before I went to school and the weekends.

10.41AM

Fairyhouse delivers

After a decidedly shaky start weather-wise Fairyhouse put on two fantastic days of jumping action over the weekend. The mix of old favourites and exciting new talent really does put the national hunt game on a different level to the flat from a fan’s perspective and few places do it better than Fairyhouse.

10.42AM

Conor Owens

I’m from Rathvilly in Co Carlow and am a relative latecomer to raceriding. It was brilliant to get the first winner under my belt on Blossom De Mai at Tramore on Tuesday and the aim is to keep improving and see how far I can progress.

7.13PM

A pattern of improvement

Irish National Hunt trainers are surely missing a trick by not running more of their horses in the UK, particularly at weekends.

8.23AM

Ger Flynn

I'm from Edenderry, Co Offaly and we had ponies at home. Our next-door neighbour was Patrick Gilson who was a Flat jockey at the time. My brother, Michael, was very good friends with him and Michael started pony racing. We used to go every Sunday pony racing all over Ireland right up to the north and down to Cork. That's probably where I got the bug for the ponies. I was really light and they thought I was going to be the next jockey. My dad passed away in 1986 when I was 16 and I probably lost interest in the ponies, and my brother-in-law got me a job when I left school in the local mushroom factory up the road. One Saturday morning my brother was riding out for the great John Mulhern at the time and brought me over just to have a look around. Tommy Carmody was there and they had a really great team for such a small yard. They put me up on a pony and I rode out with Tommy Carmody, who was a legend, and the bug was back.

11.43AM

How can the small yards survive?

The concentration of all the quality National Hunt horses in less than a handful of stables has been a bugbear for the last number of years, but as it has coincided with unprecedented success for Irish-trained horses at Cheltenham it has often seemed a price worth paying.

10.49AM