The best of both worlds

Kevin Barry takes a break next week from his duties on the Ballydoyle gallops to focus on the National coursing meeting in Clonmel. Colm O'Connor reports.

I MAY have just committed journalist suicide. I am standing on the edge of Ballydoyle, the most famous equine postal code in the world, on a mild January morning to meet a man about a dog.

Forty-eight hours earlier, one of its most famous residents, George Washington, had been named the top two-year-old in Europe while stable companions like Oratorio, Horatio Nelson and Scorpion are among seven Aidan O'Brien-trained horses highlighted in international rankings.