---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:11:44 -0800 From: "Jean R." <jeanrice@cet.com> Subject: [IRELAND] Horse Racing SNIPPET: Horse racing in Ireland takes two main forms -- steeplechasing and flat racing. Steeplechasing began in Co. Cork in 1752. This racing over fences became popular amongst the county elites, encouraged by huntsmen and cavalrymen. The sport spread rapidly to England. The English rules were adopted in Ireland in 1864, but an independent Irish National Hunt Steeplechase Committee (NHSC) was established in 1869. Permanent courses were built at Punchestown, Co. Kildare, and Fairyhouse, Co. Meath. Popular interest in steeplechasing exploded after the First World War, following the successes of Irish horses in English racing. Irish interest in English steeplechasing remains high. Flat racing is mentioned in 14th-century manuscripts, though its roots are probably much older. During the 18th century it was both encouraged as an important aspect of horse breeding and suppressed as promoting idleness and disorder. By 1790 the Turf Club of Ireland had been founded to improve the sport by introducing universal rules. Throughout the 19th century meetings, especially those at the Curragh (Co. Kildare), drew enormous crowds. Irish racing imitated English formats. An Irish Derby was run from 1886, and an Irish Oaks from 1895. While racing standards were extremely high, prize moneys remained lower than in England. All Irish racing enjoyed a boom during the First World War due to an influx of English stock and personnel. However from 1918 civil disorders began to disrupt meetings. Eventual partition did not affect the organization of racing and, despite the association of the ruling bodies with the military and the Protestant ascendancy, racing remained popular in independent Ireland. Always of some economic importance, racing and breeding in the Irish Free State was overseen from 1945 by the Racing Board, a government organization funded by a betting levy. Though said in 1986 to be in 'a perilous financial state,' the racing industry remains a major employer in the Republic, and a considerable earner of foreign income through training and the export of stock. -- Neal GARNHAM, Senior Research Fellow, University of Ulster. Further reading -- F. A. D'ARCY, "Horses, Lords and Racing Men: The Turf Club 1790-1990," (1991). ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:13:49 -0800 From: "Jean R." <jeanrice@cet.com> Subject: [IRELAND] "Love Of The Horse" -- Barbara DIAMOND (contemp.) LOVE OF THE HORSE With narrowed eyes they judged the field He informed, the Grey's sire, was a great mover. She remarked, The Chestnut's dam had a sweet mouth. Red, yellow, blue, racing silks of every hue, rippled in the sunlight across the flickering screen. Around the room lay tarnished trophies. Walls, a mosaic of photographs of mares and foals. Room corners holding drifts of magazines and books, listing bloodlines. Stating what sires were standing where, and for how much. The crumbling mansion, revealing that for long years past, every spare hundred was spent on Chestnuts, Greys, Roans, Bays, and they regretted not one penny. -- Barbara Diamond, "The Leitrim Guardian"