Credit to the IHRB

The Irish Turf Club became the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board in 2018. The main reason for the change was to ensure that the directors could not be sued personally - in effect the old Turf Club was turned into a limited liability company.

This year the IHRB has been dogged by controversy, with suggestions of a lacklustre response to the use of performance enhancing drugs, shambolic starting procedures, a failure to police non-triers and the recent Viking Hoard doping case. The directors may be very relieved that the risk of finding themselves in court has been removed.

Credit where it is due therefore as this weekend we can enjoy the Dublin Racing Festival. This is in only its third year but it has already established itself as the highlight of the late winter racing scene. There is little doubt that the quality of this weekend's contests is much higher than anything we see in the UK in January or February. The innovation of bringing together a disparate set of fixtures at different tracks to 2 days racing at Leaopardstown has been a resounding success.

The race I am most looking forward to is the Irish Champion Hurdle (3.15 Saturday). I really hope the fantastic unbeaten mare Honeysuckle wins as her owner, Kenny Alexander, is on record that if she does then her next target will be in The Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham (rather than the easier option of the mares' race).

Oh and the IHRB can be forgiven for hoping that victory in the big handicap hurdle at 3.50 does not go to the 10/1 chance Advanced Virgo - trained by a certain Charles Byrnes.


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