Joseph Osborne was the author of The Horsebreeder's Handbook and journalist for Bell's Life in London under the pen name "Beacon". Osborne was born in County Meath, Ireland in 1810 and died in Brighton 1901.
He was born into the Osborne family of Dardistown Castle. [1] Educated in Belfast, raised in Ireland he became involved in horse training and racing from an early age. [2]
Osborne moved to London in 1861 to continue his career as a journalist, writing for the sporting and racing paper Bell's Life in London. [3] By this time he was prominent in the horse racing world and considered an authority of the breeding of thoroughbreds.
Osborne's involvement with the Curragh Racecourse resulted in a lodge at the Curragh being named after him. [4]
His first book The Steeple Chase Calendar and Hurdle Race Epitome was published in three volumes for seasons 1848-1851. [5]
Osborne was the owner/trainer of Grand National winner Abd El Kader in 1850 and 1851. [6]
Nijinsky was a Canadian-bred, Irish-trained champion Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He was the outstanding two-year-old in Europe in 1969 when he was unbeaten in five races. In the following season, he became the first horse for thirty-five years to win the English Triple Crown, a feat that has not been repeated as of 2023. He is regarded as one of the greatest European flat racehorses of the 20th century.
The Cheltenham Festival is a horse racing-based meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom, with race prize money second only to the Grand National. The four-day festival takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Racecourse in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. It usually coincides with Saint Patrick's Day and is particularly popular with Irish visitors.
Sir Anthony Peter McCoy, commonly known as AP McCoy or Tony McCoy, is a Northern Irish former National Hunt horse racing jockey. Based in Ireland and Britain, McCoy rode a record 4,358 winners, and was Champion Jockey a record 20 consecutive times, every year that he was a professional.
Aidan Patrick O'Brien is an Irish horse racing trainer. Since 1996, he has been the private trainer at Ballydoyle Stables near Rosegreen in County Tipperary for John Magnier and his Coolmore Stud associates. He is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest horse racing trainers of all time.
Sandown Park is a horse racing course and leisure venue in Esher, Surrey, England, located in the outer suburbs of London. It hosts 5 Grade One National Hunt races and one Group 1 flat race, the Eclipse Stakes. It regularly has horse racing during afternoons, evenings and on weekends, and also hosts many non-racing events such as trade shows, wedding fairs, toy fairs, car shows and auctions, property shows, concerts, and even some private events. It was requisitioned by the War Department from 1940-1945 for World War II. The venue has hosted bands such as UB40, Madness, Girls Aloud, Spandau Ballet and Simply Red. The racecourse is close to Esher railway station, served by trains from London Waterloo. There is a secondary exit from Esher station which is open on race days, this exit leads directly into the racecourse and Lower Green, Esher.
A point-to-point is a form of horse racing over fences for hunting horses and amateur riders. In Ireland, where the sport is open to licensed professional trainers, many of the horses will appear in these races before they compete in National Hunt races. Consequently, the Irish point-to-point tends to be used as a nursery for future young stars: a horse that wins its debut point-to-point in Ireland will often sell for a high price. Whilst professional trainers are specifically excluded from running horses in point-to-points in Great Britain, the days of the farmer running his hunter at the local point-to-point are gone.. Increasingly, horses are run from "livery yards" - unlicensed but otherwise professional training establishments, sometimes closely allied with a licensed yard.
A steeplechase is a distance horse race in which competitors are required to jump diverse fence and ditch obstacles. Steeplechasing is primarily conducted in Ireland, Great Britain, Canada, United States, Australia, and France. The name is derived from early races in which orientation of the course was by reference to a church steeple, jumping fences and ditches and generally traversing the many intervening obstacles in the countryside.
Aidan Coleman is a retired Irish National Hunt jockey. During a seventeen-year career based in Great Britain, he rode four winners at the Cheltenham Festival and a total of 13 Grade 1 winners. In June 2023 he sustained a serious leg injury in a fall at Worcester and was unable to return to race-riding. He announced his retirement on medical advice in April 2024.
Davy Russell is an Irish retired National Hunt jockey. He was Irish jump racing Champion Jockey three times, and won the Grand National (twice), the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris.
The 1851 Grand National was, at the time, the 14th renewal of a handicap steeplechase horse race that took place at Aintree near Liverpool, England, on 26 February 1851. However, this was later retrospectively recorded as the 13th official running by the Steeplechase Calendar of 1864 when the race of 1838 was disregarded as official.
Morley Street (1984-–2009) was an Irish racehorse. He was a specialist hurdler but also won steeplechases and races on the flat. In a racing career which lasted from November 1988 until December 1995, he ran forty-five times and won twenty races including the Champion Hurdle in 1991 and the Aintree Hurdle on four successive occasions. He won the title of American Champion Steeplechase Horse on two occasions, as a result of back-to-back wins in the Breeders' Cup Steeplechase.
Fortria was an Irish National Hunt horse best known as the first dual winner of the Champion Chase and winner of the inaugural Mackeson Gold Cup. Although very successful over two miles, he also excelled at longer distances, and won the 1961 Irish Grand National and finished second in the 1962 and 1963 Cheltenham Gold Cups.
Collier Bay was a British Thoroughbred racehorse. He was a moderate performer on the flat, winning one minor race from fourteen attempts. He showed considerable improvement when switched to hurdling winning several important races including the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown and the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham. He later had some success as a steeplechaser, but was increasingly affected by respiratory problems and was retired from racing in 2001.
Persian War (1963–1984) was a British National Hunt horse and a three-time winner of the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham. He is considered to have been one of the greatest hurdlers of all time. He won the Triumph Hurdle in 1967, before progressing to dominate the hurdling ranks for the next three years, including winning the Champion Hurdle three times, before the emergence of dual Champion Hurdle winner Bula. He was rated the best hurdler since Sir Ken in the 1950s, and described as “the ultimate champion” by trainer Colin Davis, and his career is considered to have heralded ‘a golden age’ of two-mile hurdling that saw outstanding champions Bula, Comedy Of Errors, Night Nurse, Monksfield and Sea Pigeon. However, many observers felt that Persian War could have accomplished even more if not for the interference of his owner Henry Alper, who employed six trainers to prepare the horse during his career and often targeted unsuitable races.
Bula (1965–1977) was a British National Hunt horse who won the Champion Hurdle twice and many other top races over hurdles and later over fences. One of the greatest hurdlers ever, he ran during what is considered a golden period for two-mile hurdlers in the 1970s. Bula was "a remarkably consistent, versatile and durable jumper" and was known for his come-from-behind style. At one stage Bula had an unbeaten run of 13 races.
Faugheen is an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 2015 Champion Hurdle and back-to-back Christmas Hurdles in 2014 and 2015. His best performance on a racecourse came in the 2016 Irish Champion Hurdle for which he was rated the best two-mile hurdler of the 21st century. His career started over Point-to-point fences as a four-year-old and was sent racing under National Hunt rules in the 2013/2014 season where he emerged as a leading Novice hurdler, winning all of his races including the Dorans Pride Novice Hurdle, Cheltenham Novices Hurdle and Herald Champion Novice Hurdle acquiring the nickname "The Machine" in the process.
Chris Green was a leading English steeplechase rider and trainer who won two Aintree Grand Nationals as jockey and trained the winning horse in another, The Lamb in 1871.
David James Mullins is a former National Hunt jockey. He is the son of Tom Mullins and grandson of Paddy Mullins. He was one of the retained jockeys for his uncle, the multiple Irish champion trainer Willie Mullins.
Furry Glen was an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He was one of the best Irish two-year-old of 1973 when he won the Marble Hill Stakes and the Mullion Stakes as well as finishing third in the Coventry Stakes. In the following year, he was narrowly beaten in the Vauxhall Trial Stakes before recording his biggest success in the Irish 2000 Guineas. He was beaten in his next three races when tried over longer distances before ending his career with a win in the Whitehall Stakes. After he retired from racing, he became a very successful sire of National Hunt horses.
Horse racing in Ireland is intricately linked with Irish culture and society. The racing of horses has a long history on the island, being mentioned in some of the earliest texts. Domestically, racing is one of Ireland's most popular spectator sports, while on the international scene, Ireland is one of the strongest producers and trainers of Thoroughbred horses. The Irish horse racing industry is closely linked with that of Great Britain, with Irish horses regularly competing and winning on the British racing circuit.