If ever there was a good case for televising stewards’ inquiries, it can surely be made following that Paul Townend debacle at Punchestown on Tuesday, writes Pat Keane.

A Co Mayo-based chicken-processing firm has been ordered to pay €17,000 to a woman it unfairly dismissed while off sick days after suffering a miscarriage.

Former Tipperary All-Ireland winning minor football manager David Power says he wants to see potential dual players play for their county rather than being threatened with being dropped from hurling squads.

A proposal aimed at preventing inter-county managers forcing potential dual players to choose between hurling and football failed to get off the ground at the Tipperary GAA annual convention.

You’d have been hard pressed to envisage a day like this when Tipp were trudging their way through Division 3 of the Allianz Football League.

It’s rarely mentioned now, but Ruby Walsh’s first ride at the Cheltenham Festival wasn’t exactly smooth.

Imperial Call, the 1996 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, has died aged 25.

Dessie Hughes was described as the "professional’s professional" by Willie Mullins as tributes poured in from the racing world following the Kildare trainer’s death at the age of 71.

Training great Dessie Hughes has died, aged 71.

Henry de Bromhead’s Aupcharlie got back on track at Clonmel yesterday when landing the Suir Valley Chase.

Philip Fenton, who has endured a torrid few weeks, might have reason to smile after the INH Stallion Owners EBF Mares’ Maiden Hurdle at Navan this afternoon.

When a horse does a number of things wrong through a race and still wins in a canter then you have to sit up and take notice.

The rather frustating Si C’etait Vrai is worth risking in the 5 Star Sunday-6th April Beginners Chase at Fairyhouse this afternoon.

Quel Esprit, Willie Mullins’ 2012 Irish Hennessy winner, will run in a hunter chase at Leopardstown on February 9 but the grey is not eligible for the CGA Foxhunter Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

Davy Russell was yesterday fired as the number one rider to Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown House Stud.

Thursday will be the first St Stephen’s Day I have spent riding in this country since 2001.

I’m off on my travels again today to ride two horses for Willie Mullins at Newbury, including Prince De Beauchene in the Hennessy Gold Cup.

The Aidan O’Brien-trained Say proved the star of the show in Cork last evening, romping to an impressive nine lengths victory in the Irish Stallion Farms Fillies Maiden.

Ruby Walsh delighted a huge crowd at new-look Sligo yesterday when scoring on his only ride, Chiltern Hills, in the featured Kilcawley Construction Sligo Mares Handicap Hurdle.

Bookmakers got a screamer of a result in the four-runner Easter Time Hurdle at Thurles last evening, with victory going to the 14-1 outsider, Dancing Tornado.

Dot Love, originally from Denmark and who trains in Co Westmeath, saddled Liberty Counsel to land a massive 50-1 surprise in the Ladbrokes’ Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse yesterday.

Willie Mullins’ French recruit, Pont Alexandere, who looked a bit special when scoring on his Irish debut at Navan, was even more impressive in the Grade 2 Synergy Security Solutions Novice Hurdle.

I’m spending a rare Saturday at home today in Naas - weather permitting - after Ascot was abandoned yesterday.

Four rides at Ascot today, two at Thurles tomorrow and no Big Buck’s sums up my weekend rather neatly, I think.

The legendary Fergie Sutherland, best known as the trainer of the 1996 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Imperial Call, died yesterday in Marymount Hospice, Cork following a long illness. He was 81.

Dessie Hughes’ Lyreen Legend is the nap choice to make a successful debut over fences in the W B Gavin and Co EBF Beginners Chase at Galway this afternoon.

Two motorists were blinded by the lights of a car parked near a bend on the side of a country road which resulted in a three-car crash that claimed the life of an 80-year-old man who was standing alongside the parked car, a court has heard.

THE once-raced Quick Glimpse is the nap choice in the Irish Stallion Farms’ EBF Fillies Maiden at Clonmel tonight.

Trainer John Kiely earned the plaudits at Cork yesterday evening after recording a near 20-1 double courtesy of Saint Gervais and Kilbarry Beauty.

Veteran Cadogan, which belatedly got off the mark over fences on this track two weeks ago, made all to land the valuable Irish Stallion Farms Novice Handicap Chase at Navan yesterday, the second leg of a double for trainer Jim Dreaper.

Hurricane Fly is hot favourite to retain his crown in the Stan James Champion Hurdle, but how good is the Willie Mullins-trained eight-year-old, and can he hang on to his title?

Folsom Blue is the nap choice to complete a four-timer in what has the makings of a cracking Grade 2 Boylesports’ Michael Purcell Memorial Novice Hurdle at Thurles this afternoon.

Conor O’Dwyer has all but ruled out taking Folsom Blue to the Cheltenham Festival after he runs in Thursday’s Boylesports.com Michael Purcell Memorial Novice Hurdle at Thurles.

Cousin Vinny defied a 22-month absence, caused by a tendon injury, when justifying odds-on favouritism in the opening Festival Free Upgrade Offer Ends Today Hurdle at Punchestown yesterday.

Conor O’Dwyer is hoping there will be some cut in the ground to allow Folsom Blue to take his chance in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham.

CONOR O’DWYER’S Folsom Blue is fancied to continue his rise up the ladder by completing a hat-trick in a fascinating Surehaul Mercedes-Benz Novice Hurdle at Clonmel this afternoon.

APT APPROACH got the full Ruby Walsh treatment to justify strong market support in the Grade 2 Matty Ryan Memorial Kinloch Brae Chase at Thurles yesterday.

IT really is something of a rarity to spend the entire weekend at home, but I’m at Punchestown this afternoon and Navan tomorrow.

THE more one looks at last Monday’s King George at Kempton, the more convinced you become that the Cheltenham Gold Cup is Long Run’s to lose.

THE Limerick Christmas Festival of 2011 will live long in the memory of New Ross youngster Ben Dalton who rode the first double of his career and his fourth winner in as many days at Greenmount Park yesterday.

YOU would have to love what Mount Benbulben did in a Grade 2 novice hurdle at Navan last Sunday.

DAVY RUSSELL consolidated his position as the jumps season’s leading rider with a double on My Murphy and Best Served Cold in very testing conditions in Wexford yesterday, bringing his seasonal tally to 52.

THE Irish look dominant in the first at Cheltenham today.