Time For Irish Racecourses To Up Their Game

It’s great to see the good racing back and bring on the early season competition!

Early Season Competitiveness
The rain has come so there’s not going to be a weak maiden hurdle or beginners chase this side of Christmas which is exciting. Two or three main owners own most of the horses and it will be very competitive but it’s great to see!

I’ve got some top notch horses running who are already at the top of the betting for races at Cheltenham and they still have tough tests to face so it wouldn’t be surprising if they were turned over. Disko (4/7f) was turned over by Archive (7/1) and beaten by half a length at Galway on Sunday so it’s not a surprise when these odds on shots get beaten.

At this stage of the season you haven’t put your horses at 120% yet. It’s a long season so there will be a lot of horses turned over at short prices but once they improve from it and get good experience, that’s all we want.

Decision Time For Bryan Cooper
Jockeys face tough decisions in the run up to big meetings as a lot of the big owners will be taking each other on with the big name horses. Bryan Cooper is going to have to make some tough decisions as will Ruby Walsh and more. Bryan Cooper rides out for me three mornings a week and schools a couple of days for other lads.

It’s down to Bryan to make the final decision. It’s a hard decision to make but he has to be a man and stand up to it. The only certainty is that he’s not going to get it right all the time, nobody can, but Bryan is a very capable lad and he’ll do the best he can and we’re lucky to have him.

Time For Irish Racecourses To Step Up
Last week, I was at Cheltenham and the difference between the way the racecourses in the UK and Ireland are run is night and day. I think the way owners are looked after in England is second to none. You go to courses such as Ayr and Cheltenham where owners get a free meal, free entry to the track and more and I think the Irish racecourses need to step up to it.

Personally it doesn’t affect me as I’m not an owner but obviously we’d like to get a lot more English owners over to Ireland but they need to up their game massively.

The people that run these racecourses know exactly what should be done.

The owners need to be looked after because they’re the ones that keep the whole thing going.