FOR a second year running the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and horse racing are at odds on one of the most significant days for the latter sport. Twenty minutes before the start of the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby, the first at the refurbished Curragh racecourse, Kildare will play one of the most important games of its football campaign just over four kilometres away.

The two disciplines in the thoroughbred county share a large common fan base and it is regrettable that the GAA were intransigent when it came to the possibility of avoiding a direct clash. I understand that making a change would have been difficult, but not impossible.