Equine bank idea: Today’s front page has articles by Managing Editor Valentine Lamb and weekly contributor Neville Ring. As next weekend is Guineas weekend at the Curragh, Ring examines the first domestic Classics. Newmarket 2000 winner Nebbiolo is an intended runner, but his trainer, Kevin Prendergast, will want the ground to dry out more. Runner-up at Newmarket, The Minstrel, is entered, but Ring writes that Vincent O’Brien will not make a final decision until later during the week. Ballydoyle also has Marinsky and Artaius in the field.

Ring also writes about a growing, and worrying, trend that he has noticed: an increase in the rate of misprints in the Irish Racing Calendar.

Lamb’s piece is about breeders, and follows remarks made by Tipperary-based breeder, Cecil Harris. Harris suggests the establishment of what he calls an Irish Equine Investment Bank. This involves a levy of £10 per mare, setting up a fund which will enable mare owners to buy their own stallions. According to Harris, the ideal stallion should be at a fee of of no more than £1,000, and should cost no more than £100,000 to buy. He expresses alarm at the demise of studs which stocked “reasonably priced” stallions, such as Trimblestown and Fort Union.

Lamb agrees in principle with the suggestion, but admits that the laws of supply and demand, and the international bloodstock market, will have the final say: “I feel it should be an open ended fund available to both breeders and ordinary investors,” Lamb’s piece concludes. “In any case, the whole question should be the subject of an in-depth survey by professionals.”

Page 27 has entries for next weekend’s Curragh fixtures. The Irish 1000 Guineas is on Friday evening (Friday the thirteenth!), with the Irish 2000 Guineas on Saturday afternoon.

Carberry treble: There is also racing at Clonmel on Saturday, where the going is soft for a mixed card. The juvenile hurdle and the three-year-old fillies maiden are divided, making an eight-race card.

Champion jump jockey Tommy Carberry goes to Clonmel without any rides in the three hurdle races, but with rides in each of the three Flat races – and he wins all three. He wins the two fillies maidens on Princess Ayesha for the Dermot Weld stable, and 4/5 favourite Bit Of The Holly, trained by Eddie Harty. The treble is completed in the concluding two mile handicap when Limetree Bay, trained by Paddy Osborne, wins at 4/5 favourite.

Over hurdles there are wins for Dessie Hughes on Ramrajya at 4/6 favourite, and then Mouse Morris and Hard Tarquin win the two and a half mile hurdle.

Noel Meade has his fifth Saturday winner over the space of four weekends when Burren Orchid and John Curant win the mile and a half handicap.

Under Way romps home: Navan stages the first evening fixture of the year on Monday, and the going is soft. Unusually, the feature race is a hunter chase, with five Flat races completing the card.

The International Champion Hunters Cup, over three miles, is worth £2,115. The top weight is Pat Hogan’s seven-year-old, Under Way, with 12 stone five. He starts 3/1 third choice, but he and John Fowler win by six lengths and 12 lengths from Grand Cru and favourite Rusty Tears.

Con Collins has another winner when Keep Straight and Christy Roche win the three-year-old fillies’ maiden. They are cheered home by the bookies at 20/1. The only winning favourite tonight is Lomond Shoe at 5/2, who takes the juvenile five furlong race under Tommy Carmody for the Liam Browne stable.

The best finish comes in the concluding Mellifont Handicap over a mile and a quarter, worth £484. Tomorrow Land and Stephen Craine win by a short head and the same from Tasseltip and Hard Road, with 10 lengths back to fourth. Kevin Kerr trains the 3/1 winner.

The Jackpot of £2,215.50 is not won.

King Weasel rules: Limerick is the venue for racing on Thursday afternoon, and once again the going is soft, and the fields are relatively large, with 11 the smallest number of runners today.

The 11-runner field is for the day’s biggest prize money, the £1,056 on offer for the Ulster Bank Handicap, over two miles one furlong. King Weasel goes off the 11/10 favourite, and three furlongs out, Mick Kennedy presses the button. The five-year-old wins easily by six lengths. However, bookmakers extend full forgiveness to Kennedy after he wins the next race on Musical Sam at 20/1. Tote backers who invest 20p on Musical Sam are rewarded with a divided of £13.24.

Proceedings start with two divisions of the Ardnacrusha Hurdle. Benjy Coogan wins his first race over hurdles when Moyne Gael takes division one; and in division two, Follydale, from the Eddie Harty stable, is backed from fives into 5/4 favourite. He and Tommy Carmody win by six lengths.

The day concludes with a divided bumper, and both races are won by well-backed favourites. Hot Tomato, owned, trained and ridden by Homer Scott, takes division one at 11/4 favourite; and finally the second division is won by newcomer Adain’s Bay and Timmy Jones, the 4/5 favourite.

Track talk: Regular columnist “Pandora” writes about meeting a lady at the races one day. This lady is actually sitting in the car outside the racecourse waiting for her husband. The meeting produces a conversation about amenities on Irish racecourses. The lady suggests: “Racecourses should provide indoor as well as outdoor entertainment; if they even had a Bingo hall and held Bingo sessions between races on evenings like this, it would surely add to the profits.”

“Pandora” writes about a programme recently on RTÉ television about gambling in Ireland. The programme makers visited bingo halls in Dublin and Co Clare, and a poker game (in which the faces of the players were not visible). “Pandora” also talks to Richard Gernon, chairman of the Bookmakers’ Association, who tells her: “You wouldn’t believe the number of bookmakers who have gone out of business in the last few years. There used to be about 60 bookmakers operating in the Silver ring, there are none now. Navan, Naas, Dundalk, Leopardstown, the Park, had cheap, or public enclosures. These are closed now.”

Madelia Oaks triumph: Desmond Stoneham reports from France. On Sunday at Longchamp, the French 1000 Guineas is won by Madelia, on only her second racecourse appearance. Yves Saint-Martin makes his move a furlong and a half out, and the pair win by three lengths from dead-heaters Beaune and Robert Sangster’s Durtal.

The winner is a daughter of Caro, owned by Daniel Wildenstein and trained by Angel Penna.

Stoneham also writes about a dilemma facing the Aga Khan about the sale of his horse Blushing Groom: “The Aga Khan hopes to have all relevant offers for Blushing Groom on his desk by May 9. He will then have the enviable task of selecting the purchaser for his three-year-old champion, who will almost certainly go to the United States.”

Taoiseach opens museum: Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave will, on Monday, officially open the Irish Horse Museum, which is located in the grounds of the Irish National Stud at Tully. Valentine Lamb writes about the new museum on page six, accompanied by a photo of museum director, Mary McGrath, sitting beside the skeleton of Arkle.

She has worked for over a year on the setting up of the museum. While for many, the skeleton of the greatest steeplechaser will be the main attraction, it is currently “in the open” and anybody can reach and touch the bones. Lamb writes that a glass case for the skeleton will cost another £1,000.

This adds another reason to visit Tully. One quarter of page six is an advertisement for the Irish National Stud. Admission prices are 60p for adults and 20p for children. A conducted tour of the Stud is 50p, 10p for children. Page seven has a photo of the stud main yard, and half a page of advertisements from various companies, such as the Manor Inn Naas, Naas Racecourse, the Curragh Racecourse Committee, Curragh Bloodstock Agency, Arkle Racing Service (bookmakers) and Arkle Limited of Killeagh, Co Cork, who make and install kitchens.

Spring Show: In this week’s Irish Horse World, Jack Fagan reports from the RDS. Although admission prices are up by 50% on last year, attendance figures are “expected to establish a new record”. Over 140,000 have come through the doors over the first three days, which is 30,000 higher than last year. Fagan says that the stars of the week have been the 33-horse troop of Canadian Mounties. The regular show jumping competitions, he adds, “did not engender any great enthusiasm.”

Fagan also writes about another row between the RDS and the press corps over food. After some journalists refused to accept some of the food provided to them in 1976, the RDS switched caterers. Fagan reports that the food on Tuesday was excellent; but: “the following day the menu had been reduced to a cold dish because of objections from some firms who sponsor private receptions in an adjoining room. They, apparently, objected to hot meals being carried through their room to the press restaurant, so the caterers were instructed to discontinue the practice. By Wednesday, many of the journalists were again boycotting the restaurant.”

Schockemole retires: Olympic show jumping champion, Alwin Schockemole, announces he is retiring from competitive show jumping. Schockemole, who will be 40 later this month, says that he will retire due to an old spinal injury. He won the Olympic gold medal in Montreal last year on Warwick Rex.