Enda Bolger led the tributes to JT McNamara after the former leading amateur rider died aged 41.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

The week of the Galway Races is upon us and with it comes roguish antics and plenty of style.

Yesterday morning the racing world woke to the sad news that John Thomas McNamara had passed away. The 41-year-old former leading amateur, who suffered a horrific fall from Galaxy Rock in the Kim Muir Challenge Cup at the Cheltenham Festival of 2013, lost the one battle he could never win.

The world is a better place because of the legacy left by jockey JT McNamara, described as “an absolute horseman”, by racehorse owner JP McManus.

Last season’s Gold Cup hero Coneygree is a potential doubt for the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury on Saturday week after meeting with a small setback.

Jockey Andrew McNamara has announced he is to retire from the saddle at the age of 32.

Aer Lingus transatlantic cabin crew member Olive Murphy will turn pilot at the upcoming Cheltenham race meeting.

Derek O’Connor will be making a bold bid to regain his point-to-point title if yesterday’s well-attended Kilworth & Araglen Harriers fixture at Kilworth is anything to go by for he partnered a sparkling three-timer.

The competitor in me loves watching horse racing, there are so many elements that make it enthralling.

Brian Moore was co-commentator for the BBC at the Stade de France last Saturday as Ireland and France pounded into each other for 80 of the most intense minutes of sport you could ever watch through your fingers and he was prompted to remark at one point on the copious quantities of claret oozing from the heads and faces of the players involved.

Tony McCoy produced the kind of swashbuckling ride for which he has become so famed as he secured his 4,000th winner over jumps at Towcester yesterday.

Over €550,000 has been raised for two injured Irish jockeys both left paralysed after falls within weeks of each other.

Approximately 200 racehorse owners have already signed up to a campaign to feature owners’ colours in a tribute section of the race card for the Limerick Charity race-day on October 14.

A trust fund has been set up for a 24-year-old Corkman who is determined to walk again despite being told by doctors this will never happen.

Racing last night rallied around another stricken Irish jockey, as Limerick’s Brian Toomey battled “life-threatening” injuries following a heavy fall in Scotland.

Horse Racing tycoon JP McManus made the largest bid at a private auction that has raised around over €100,000 for paralysed Limerick jockey JT McNamara.

Cork attacker Colm O’Neill has revealed that he is staying philosophical with regard to dealing with his third cruciate ligament injury in the space of six years.

Point to point medical facilities have been identified as requiring immediate improvements according to Michael Hickey, Senior Steward, Irish National Hunt Steeplechase Committee.

JT McNamara, the jockey left paralysed after a fall at the Cheltenham Festival, has been transferred to a hospital in Dublin.

Out of work and just making ends meet, this listener dug deep to donate to the jockey’s fund.

Grand National-winning rider Mick Fitzgerald has spoken of his sadness and of the risks involved in racing after it was revealed by the family of rider JT McNamara that the serious neck injury he suffered in a fall at the Cheltenham Festival has led to paralysis.

It has been confirmed that jockey JT McNamara has been paralysed after suffering a serious neck injury during a fall at the Cheltenham Festival.

Plans will be made to transfer jockey JT McNamara to a hospital nearer his family in Ireland.

There were seven races at yesterday’s Cloyne Harriers point-to-point fixture at Dromahane and the Tom Keating-trained Mortlestown attained due reward for his consistency by winning a vintage first division of the five and six-year-old geldings’ maiden in the hands of ‘Corky’ Carroll, who immediately dedicated the victory to his stricken colleague JT McNamara.

Jim Dreaper appears to have a seriously-talented-prospect on his hands in the form of Lord Fingal who lit up Saturday’s Ward Union hunt point-to-point at The Folly outside Oldtown in north Co Dublin by coming home as he pleased in the five-year-old geldings’ maiden.

A leading amateur Irish jockey who suffered a serious neck injury at Cheltenham races is in a “stable condition” today following surgery.

Barry Geraghty had retreated indoors cradling a hot cuppa and reflecting on his Gold Cup success on board Bob’s Worth when another reminder of National Hunt’s innate danger played itself out a few feet to his left.

What another fantastic day of racing at Cheltenham, bringing to an end another magnificent festival.

The crowds had already began to spill out into the approaching gloom of the surrounding countryside by the time Thomas Mullins’s Alderwood made it a record 14th Irish-trained winner at this week’s Cheltenham Festival.

Bobs Worth provided Nicky Henderson with a second Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup in three years under Barry Geraghty.

JT McNamara could undergo surgery today after sustaining a serious neck injury in a fall at Cheltenham on Thursday.

The thoughts of many at Cheltenham today will be with leading amateur jockey JT McNamara, who remains in hospital in a coma after suffering a serious neck injury when his horse fell.

Limerick jockey JT McNamara was airlifted to hospital in an induced coma after being injured in a fall at the Cheltenham Festival.

An unmistakable air of sobriety descended on the Cheltenham Festival towards the end of ‘St Patrick’s Thursday’ when news emerged that amateur jockey JT McNamara was airlifted to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol after suffering a serious injury.

Amateur jockey JT McNamara suffered a serious neck injury in a fall at the Cheltenham Festival today, it has emerged.

JT McNamara was airlifted to hospital after being injured in a fall at the Cheltenham Festival.

Gordon Elliott feels Carlito Brigante’s previous experience of Cheltenham will stand him in good stead when he tackles the Pulteney Land Investments Novices’ Handicap Chase at the Festival.

The Enda Bolger-trained newcomer Marlbrook lit up yesterday’s North Tipperary Foxhounds point-to-point fixture at Nenagh by destroying the opposition in the opening five-year-old geldings’ maiden.

Leading bumper horse Champagne Fever is one of seven remaining entries in the Bar One Racing Royal Bond Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse on Sunday.

Eugene O’Sullivan’s The Blarney Rose lit up yesterday’s extremely wet Boulta point-to-point fixture by destroying the opposition in the open lightweight.