HAVING off-loaded his top horses in recent months, Cian O’Connor has seized the moment and is back on the acquisition trail.

LAST year people were taking it for granted that George W Bush would be re-elected this November, but the lessons of history would suggest that it may not be so easy. Indeed public opinion polls indicate that he has an uphill battle.

THE Americans are promising democracy in Iraq, but at the same time they are saying that they are not going to allow a fundamentalist regime come to power there.