IF an analysis of Irish racing results in May was to be used as a snapshot of the competitiveness and health of the sport here, it might be deemed to be quite positive. This is taken from the perspective of the spread of winners among the training ranks.

Of course, this is not a scientific study, and the individual stories within these statistics would tell quite another tale. However, social comment would have you believe that nobody stands a chance against the big battalions, and the ‘small man’ has no prospects whatever.