Grand National

Authorized (Ire), the brilliant Derby-winning son of Montjeu (Ire) who has made his name as a leading jumps sire through the exploits of Tiger Roll (Ire), Nichols Canyon (GB) and I Am Maximus (Fr), is set to return to Ireland where he will stand at Ger O'Neill's Capital Stud in County Kilkenny.  O'Neill revealed on Thursday that a deal has been struck with the Jockey Club of Turkey, where Authorized has stood since 2020, to bring the 19-year-old back to a jurisdiction where his stock is in most demand.  Dual...

As part of a "relentless focus on welfare", the Jockey Club has announced a number of changes to the Randox Grand National, including reducing the maximum number of starters from 40 to 34. Having canvassed the views of a wide range of racing industry stake-holders as well as World Horse Welfare, the Jockey Club has settled upon five key changes to the Aintree showcase, which will be run next year on Saturday, April 13. Last year's race was delayed by 15 minutes after protestors invaded the track. One of the...

History-making jockey Rachael Blackmore, who in 2021 became the first woman to ride the winner of the Grand National, has been made an honorary MBE for services to sport. After landing Aintree's famous race aboard Minella Times (Ire), Blackmore, 33, also won the following season's Cheltenham Gold Cup on A Plus Tard (Fr). The Irish jockey was crowned leading rider at the Cheltenham Festival in 2021, the same year she won the BBC Sports Personality's World Sport Star of the Year award. Notably, she forged a famous partnership with the...

The headline to this piece is deliberately binary. That is, after all, what heated debates on social media or even more traditional media platforms, usually come down to: love or hate. And, let's face it, in this clickbait age, that's often deliberately so, to inflame the debate. The art of reasonable and nuanced argument is all but lost. It was with wearying predictability in the countdown to Saturday's Grand National that we witnessed the pink t-shirted protestors attempting to scale the perimeter fences of Aintree. A few glued themselves to...

British Horseracing Authority [BHA] chief executive Julie Harrington has condemned the actions of protestors who delayed the Grand National and also announced a "painstaking" analysis will take place in a bid to  try and understand what caused three fatalities over the three days of the meeting. The Sandy Thomson-trained Hill Sixteen suffered a fatal fall at the first fence in the race that was delayed by around 15 minutes after animal activists stormed the track. Two more horses were killed at the meeting. In a statement released on Sunday, Harrington...

Corach Rambler provided trainer Lucinda Russell and jockey Derek Fox with their second Grand National triumph at Aintree on Saturday after the race was delayed due to a number of animal rights activists storming the track. Successful in 2017 with One For Arthur, Russell and Fox repeated the trick with Corach Rambler, who had enough in reserve to hold off the fast-finishing Vanillier in a race where Sandy Thompson's Hill Sixteen suffered a fatal fall at the first fence.  A winner at the past two Cheltenham Festivals, Corach Rambler was...

In light of criticism from animal rights activists in the build-up to the Grand National at Aintree on Saturday, Stand Up For Racing, a gathering of passionate horse racing professionals that will seek to represent the racing and breeding industries, has been formed.  The concept arose out of a widely-held frustration that the racing and breeding industries are not always well represented when questioned in the mainstream media and on social media, often allowing damaging misinformation and misconceptions to prevail. The aim of the group is to unite all of...

Jessica Harrington is the most successful female trainer that Ireland has ever produced. The 76-year-old has sent out multiple Cheltenham Festival winners, including the legendary Champion Chaser Moscow Flyer (Ire), as well as Classic winners Alpha Centauri (Ire) and Magical Lagoon (Ire) from her Moone-based stables in County Kildare. Plans are now afoot to take home more big-race riches this season and, despite the fact that Harrington is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer, there is only one topic of conversation at the breakfast table at this time of year....

Is it just me or should France be known as the bloodstock land of opportunity? This is the country that saw Wootton Bassett (GB) and Walk In The Park (Ire) pull themselves up by the bootstraps after entering the stud book at relatively modest sums. There are few serious racing nations that provide as much of a chance for a stallion to flourish than France does. Take Kauto Star (Fr), the greatest staying chaser of the modern era, as an example. He hailed from the largely unheralded Village Star (Fr)...

A large part of the fun that comes with following racing and the bloodstock game is predicting the future. Who will win the Derby? Who might top the Orby Sale? What freshman sires are here to stay and which ones will drift into the abyss? Well, we've looked deep into the TDN Europe crystal ball for 2023 to see if we can come up with the answers to the burning questions for the year ahead. Enjoy! January If you think he had a good Christmas, wait until you see how...

Gordon Elliott, Barry Geraghty and Charles Byrnes were among those to lead the tributes to Davy Russell, one of the finest National Hunt riders to ever pull on a pair of silks, who retired at the age of 43 after partnering Liberty Dance to victory in the Thurles feature on Sunday.  Russell will forever be remembered for partnering Elliott's Tiger Roll to successive Grand National triumphs in 2018 and 2019. Like those momentous days at Aintree, Russell signed off from the saddle with his customary wave aboard the Elliott-trained Liberty...

Once viewed as one of the classiest riding prospects in Ireland, Tom 'Socks' Madden pointed to the harsh realities of competing in his home nation as the driving force behind him taking the plunge and bidding to emulate Declan Bates and Johnny Allen by turning to Australia in an effort to rejuvenate his career in the saddle.  Just over a month after he upped sticks to Australia, Madden rode his first winner for new boss Lindsey Smith aboard Glitter 'N' Gold (Aus) (Choisir {Aus}), after which he credited fellow Irishman...