Seven years ago, a horse sporting the famous green, pink, and white silks of Khalid Abdullah rocked up at York for the penultimate start of a flawless career.

About half an hour after the final whistle in Croke Park yesterday, as the Wexford players were still celebrating on the pitch, I ran into a bunch of Wexford supporters I last met in Down Royal racecourse years ago.

It was 100-30 the field yesterday for next Saturday’s Epsom Derby and that tells you all you need to know about the open nature of this Classic.

Breed the best to the best and hope for the best is an ideology that has been knocking around racing for years.

John Gosden has revealed a decision on Too Darn Hot’s participation in the Qipco 2000 Guineas could be made early next week.

This weekend’s national hunt action takes place tomorrow and Willie has five runners to look forward to. He starts with Breaken, a recruit from France, where he ran on the flat three times and once over hurdles.

Leinster may be the best side in Europe over the course of the season, but the notion that they are invincible ignores those human traits — thoroughbreds or not, says Ronan O’Gara.

Aidan O’Brien cut a supremely relaxed figure yesterday morning as he hosted the launch of the new Irish Flat racing season, which gets under way at Naas on Sunday.

Walter Swinburn, one of the most renowned jockeys of his generation and rider of the brilliant Shergar, has died, aged 55.

An extraordinarily successful year for Aidan O’Brien was recognised at the Dorchester Hotel in London last night as four Ballydoyle charges were honoured at the 26th annual Cartier Racing Awards while the master handler received the Cartier/Daily Telegraph Award of Merit.

On an overcast Kilkenny afternoon about this time last year a seemingly bog standard two-year old maiden race was run at Gowran Park. Of the sixteen starters, most were unexposed types and although they represented many of our high profile training operations it didn’t quite feel like one of those golden maidens that hid unrevealed secrets for a sparkling future. Looks can sometimes deceive.

A quick sweep of the archives would show it is perhaps not the greatest surprise that Kieren Fallon has called time on his career in the saddle.

While Aidan O’Brien is not afraid of using superlatives to describe his horses, his comparison of Order Of St George to a Rolls Royce was not far off the mark after he turned in a display of sheer class to land the Gold Cup In Honour Of The Queen’s 90th Birthday.

Almanzor sprang a 20-1 surprise to give trainer Jean-Claude Rouget his second win in the French Derby at Chantilly.

The Gurkha was slashed in the ante-post market on the Investec Derby after justifying the decision to supplement him for the French 2000 Guineas by powering away with the Poule d’Essai des Poulains at Deauville.

Triple Crown hero American Pharoah has been named the 2015 Longines World’s Best Racehorse at a ceremony in London.

Golden Horn “felt good” yesterday morning as he worked at Keeneland in preparation for the final race of his career in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

 

It was one of more bizarre moments of the year, an incident that left an asterisk on one of the biggest Flat races of 2015.

Top-class middle-distance performer Eagle Top will bid to open his account for the campaign in the Dubai Duty Free Legacy Cup at Newbury today.

It was billed as a potential classic and Saturday’s Qipco Champions Stakes certainly lived up to the hype. Before, during and after.

The largesse bestowed by the banks on some property developers during the boom years included trips to the Ryder Cup in Kentucky, to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and the Monaco Grand Prix.

Herald The Dawn, impressive when winning his maiden at Naas earlier this month, produced a sustained and very game effort to overcome soft ground and exciting filly Now Or Never in the Group 2 Galileo EBF Futurity Stakes yesterday afternoon at the Curragh.

In the end it was all very logical. 

The Juddmonte International and the Irish Champion Stakes are the next races being considered for Royal Ascot hero Free Eagle.

Forgotten Rules is set to be prepared for the Irish St Leger following his admirable effort in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.

You’d imagine that just about anything is now possible as far as Dermot Weld’s Free Eagle is concerned for the rest of the season.

Dermot Weld has had winners in big races all over the world, from America to Australia and from Cheltenham to Galway, but few have given him greater pleasure than guiding Free Eagle to victory in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot yesterday.

Night Of Thunder may have done little to boost the Lockinge form in yesterday’s Queen Anne Stakes, but that’s no reason to doubt Integral’s claims in today’s Duke of Cambridge Stakes, at Royal Ascot.

Ken Condon’s stable star Success Days faces a spell on the sidelines after X-rays revealed he suffered a stress fracture in the Ivestec Derby.

Ryan Moore is set to ride The Grey Gatsby in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot next week.

The Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud remains the intended next port of call for Treve after the French superstar took her comeback run in her stride.