TRAINER John Kiely (82) was in good form speaking from his Co Waterford home, recovering from the broken leg he sustained a couple of weeks when riding out at home.

His nephew is looking after the horses “but we’re practically closed down, there’s only two left here, the others are all gone”.

He’s hoping for a return to racing soon even if behind closed doors as previously when a “good job” was done and is enjoying having time to read The Irish Field especially features on past times in the racing world.

RESTRICTED trainer Ian McCaghy decided with Coolquay Lodge owned by his family closed over what would normally be a busy Easter, he would stage his own Grand National at Hollywood Rath, Hollystown.

The jockeys included his son James, daughter Sara and his wife Mary who gallantly decided to get up and have a go only to find herself a casualty at one of the small fences.

With a suspected dislocated shoulder she was taken to hospital but got out again that evening and all is well.

A golden new baby

CONGRATULATIONS to bloodstock agent Angus Gold and his wife Georgina on the birth on their daughter Tara Mary.

Michael’s going hardcore for two great causes

MICHAEL Verney, racing correspondent with the Irish Independent, deserves plenty of support for his mind boggling attempt to complete 1,000 push ups in an hour to raise badly needed funds for two extremely worthy causes.

The first is for the aquisation of PPE for HSE staff during this unprecedented crisis and the second is to raise funds for #DoitforDan, a fund we highlighted here some weeks ago.

Michael posted: “Dan Donoher is a one-year-old boy who was diagnosed with a rare genetic neuromuscular disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Type 1 and Scoliosis.

“It had been incurable but a wonder drug on the US market called Zolgensma has offered Dan a chance at an improved or even a normal life.

“This ground-breaking treatment costs $2.1 million for a once-off infusion and I want to play my part in helping his parents Niall and Aisling raise the money they need to get this.

“I will have a live stream on Facebook on April 30th (Thursday) so tune in if you enjoy some torture and let’s raise all the money we can for two great causes!”

‘Hello, is it me you’re looking for?’

A tweet spotted online:

Charlie Robertson @saintrobertson

“I can’t believe I missed a personal call from the brilliant @Ruby_Walsh yesterday evening. I subscribe to @RacingTV and knowing their profits get fed back in to racing, I decided to continue with my subscription even though there is no live racing. I can’t wait to go racing again”

Apparently Ruby Walsh has been drafted in by Racing TV to personally call some subscribers to thank them for continuing to support the channel during the racing stoppage.

We suspect the first half of each call is taken up with Ruby trying to convince the customer it really is him. The other half is either the customer talking about their favourite Ruby winners they backed or, if brave, asking him about that one that fell at the last and cost the punters a fortune!