Last Monday’s Irish Grand National evoked plenty of memories for Roy Craigie, many of them from long before he enjoyed an 11-year stint as Fairyhouse general manager up to 1999.

Retired Supreme Court judge, Mr Justice Ronan Keane, and former Attorney General, Eoghan Fitzsimons SC, are to head a new appeals body for Irish horse racing, it emerged today.

I can safely say that in all the years I have been watching racing, I have never witnessed a worse decision than the one which saw Blueberry Boy disqualified after winning the opening novice hurdle at Punchestown on Sunday.

National Hunt claiming riders in Ireland can now look forward to a new championship which gets underway at Down Royal on St Stephen's Day.

Horse Racing Ireland is to inject a further €325,000 funding into the Irish National Hunt Steeplechase Committee for point-to-points racing in 2004.