SOME times it’s no harm to be stuck in the past. It was a strange week, comparing the allure of a six-race, poor quality beach meeting with no gimmicks, basic food outlets, to a star-studded day of the best flat horses around but where there was a feeling that just something was missing there. This should be more exciting?

Laytown had represented one of the landmark, ‘phew, we can breathe again’ outings by the end of the Covid lockdown when it staged the meeting in November 2021. Hearing Whiskey in the Jar blaring out from the loudspeakers made us feel life was coming right again.

On Tuesday, there was a few bars of Mack The Knife drifting back as you walked in, it’ll not beat the Wolfe Tones getting the crowds at Electric Picnic but try explaining that to the modern day influencers! Laytown beach is unique. All ages, mothers with very young babies, dads with pints, grannies by the parade ring. Very many British accents. Everyone and anyone, of all ages, but it makes you think.

An interesting comment was made at Leopardstown that all attempts and expense spent in trying to attract the 18-30 crowds to racetracks may be wasted. The theory goes that you’d be better off bringing children or teenagers to the races, sowing a seed and then watch them come back to racing when they are in their 40s and have settled down. Let them off to sow their wild oats (pardon the pun) in their 20s and 30s.

It might be worth further thought. Judging by Laytown this week, certainly there is something in bringing all ages together and, even if it feels corny, building on the sense of Irishness you find at country meetings.

ONE of the key advantages Auguste Rodin had in the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes was that it was on home ground. He had his ‘gang’ to protect him through the race and of course Leopardstown is home ground to Ryan Moore and much less so for Hollie Doyle and Kevin Stott.

Even without exact sectional times, Leopardstown showed that time and time again, the horse who is slowing up in the final furlong still wins because he made his move at the right time.

Even without sectionals, the aerial views of the Irish Champions Stakes showed how, in tracking King Of Steel, how much ground Hollie Doyle was conceding to the leading trio as the race moved to its hottest stage.

Again, in the Paddy Power Stakes, even though the field were closing, the damage appeared to be done early here as Adelaide River put his stamp on the race by nabbing the lead quickly and making all.

The winner was actually the slowest of the first four home from the three-furlong pole to the line.

It was similar in France on Sunday. Fantastic Moon’s rider was first to react in the Prix Niel. The second, Feed The Flame ran faster than him for each of the last four furlongs but to no avail. The damage was done, the advantage gained.

There’s some evidence now too that Kevin Stott being the first to strike for home in the Derby may have flattered King Of Steel who did not pick up so well over two furlongs less at Leopardstown (not that White Birch and Sprewell have done a lot since for the Derby form).

SUGGESTIONS elsewhere in this paper on switching around the two days of the Irish Champions Weekend would also get favour from this quarter. The two best races are on the Saturday. Surely a build up to those races on the Sunday would be better? The Irish Derby seemed better placed on the Sunday.

The Curragh were unlucky with depleted fields but the Irish St Leger could be hit even harder as the strong staying horses are simply disappearing and have many options around this time. The 2019 running had 10 runners and real depth, eight runners rated over 110, 2020 had eight runners, 2021 had 13, 2022 had 11 runners (five were 110+). Just the two were over 110 last weekend. Four runners, no three-year-olds, not even from Ballydoyle. A general reduction in the good staying horses in training? The mile and a half Group 2 Paddy Power Stakes in the Saturday most likely took from the Leger and White Birch should have run well.

The Doncaster Cup for the older horses and St Leger come the following week. The now very valuable Irish Cesarewitch in two weeks’ time. It’s a crowded few weeks for the stayers.

THE results of the Luke Comer case where 12 horses under his training licence tested positive to a performance enhancing drug throws racing in the wrong type of spotlight again.

Many will just read the headlines and take the opportunity to dump on the sport once more. They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity – but there is.

Reading all the report, for all the criticisms the IHRB endure, you would not envy anyone preparing this case, gathering the evidence strong enough to prove wrongdoing with the horses under Comer’s training responsibility. A few lines stood out.“The Committee accepts the evidence of those expert witnesses who said that they had never found MD or MT in the environment in extensive testing over years.”

And: “It is hardly necessary to state the gravity of the finding where it involved so many horses in one yard. It was quite unprecedented.”

“The Committee found that it was not possible, on the evidence, to say how the horses came to test positive.”

It will be suggested, when the defence was, ”I did nothing, I wasn’t there,” should such an individual be allowed have a training licence if they are only in the country for three months. With racing continally under the cosh, should more be required before a licence is granted?

WHEN I suggested Arrest as a good bet a few weeks back (at a nice 10/), I did not expect that he would be backed into favouritism nor be the choice of Frankie Dettori.

There was an old saying that the fittest horse wins the Guineas, the luckiest horse wins the Derby and the best horse wins the Leger. I’m not sure Arrest is the best horse in the Leger, but he might be at this distance and on softer ground. The rain has arrived at the right time, for all that the Geoffrey Freer second, Ching Shih, didn’t do a lot for the form in the Park Hill on Thursday.

But he gallops, he stays, he’s by Frankel, he’s trained by the Gosdens. Is he Logician Mark II? His form is not that far behind the Queen’s Vase, Gordon and Great Voltigeur winners. He’s won on ‘Good to Soft’ over a mile, five and a half furlongs. The 10s and 8s were nice, 3/1 is a bit short but he’ll do.

The Great Game – Part 1

Everyone has a shot: Donal Spring on his Group 1 winner Moss Tucker - “We bred him on a cattle farm in Leitrim.”

Aidan O’Brien on National Stakes winner Henry Longfellow (Dubawi-Minding): “The pedigree of this horse is second to none.”

What would each of them make in a sales ring? And don’t forget Ylang Ylang, an also-ran on Sunday, despite her 1.5 million guineas tag.

The Great Game – Part 2

A punter overhead paddock side at Laytown: “Where’s Rachael? …(waving) Rachael, Rachael.

Overheard after the race: “Yah ride the winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup…and then yah go and drop your hands…” [Blackmore finishing fifth on Clarinbridge – she didn’t really but losing punters know it all.]