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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 an ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 quit ..read more

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 h ..read more