LOOKING out of the window of my study, my working from home venue today, one could be forgiven for thinking it was the month of November, not July. The incessant rain had me wondering how long it would be before I needed to swap my car for a canoe.

The hope to attend last evening’s race fixture at Kilbeggan was an early victim among my plans for the weekend. What desperate bad luck for Paddy Dunican and his team, along with his great sponsors, Axa Insurances, that their showpiece race would suffer from the quite unseasonal deluge we have experienced in recent days.

My decision to defer my trip to Kilbeggan until next Friday, when they race again, came just ahead of a call from the organiser of an outdoor music event I have tickets for tomorrow evening. He and his venue have to make a determination on whether to go ahead or not, and they are trying to make that choice in the best interests of all.

Never easy to know what is the best to do at times, and inevitably someone will be inconvenienced.

A most positive weather outcome on Sunday, typically, will happen on a day when we have no Irish racing. Hopefully, Killarney will benefit from some fine conditions for their five-day summer festival meeting, and that they will be well supported.

We could certainly do with some good news stories these days. Social media seems to be laden with bad news, scandals, and too much toxicity and comment from people about everyone and everything. Whatever became of the advice to say nothing unless you have something good to say?

Good news

On the good news front, I love the story of Ethical Diamond, the three-year-old son of Awtaad who sold for 320,000gns this week at Tattersalls. Bred and raced by William and Emma Kennedy, and trained privately for them by Michael O’Meara, he was purchased by Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins just hours before the Kennedys and O’Meara had a double at Dundalk.

Sadly, space precluded me from including all the comments made by William Kennedy, but he had a mention for each and every person who played a part in the successful day they had on Wednesday. The races won by Ethical Diamond and the winners at Dundalk may not have been the best in the calendar, but they meant the world to Kennedy.

Now, if only we could bottle his enthusiasm for racing and breeding and transfer it into the DNA of everyone else.