JANUARY blues will be a thing of the past on Monday, we hope, and I for one will be pleased to welcome a new month, longer daylight hours and, hopefully, a lifting of the nation’s spirits.

While the Viking Hoard incident continues to dominate the airwaves, it is best to await for now the outcome of the appeal in that case, due to be heard on February 9th. However, I would also ask that commentators on the matter keep some sense of perspective when it comes to their broad brush painting of the story as indicative of some great malaise in Irish racing. The case and its circumstances are atypical of what happens on a daily basis in racing.