1. Jessica Harrington trains at Moone in Co Kildare.
“I’m writing a piece about John Warwick for Sunday.”
“Yes.”
“I believe you’ve known and been using him for a long time?”
“I’ve used him to do my horses’ tendons. He’s good at doing tendons. And that’s all I’ve used him for.”
“Are you still using him?”
“I had a horse there the other day. Yes, I am still using him. And that does not involve any drugs — it’s a laser, a much more unintrusive form of treating tendons.”
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“I’m sure you know about the raid and what was found?”
“I know about the raid, but when you do a tendon operation on a horse it’s nothing to do with drugs.”
“But they found drugs in the raid?”
“That has nothing to do with what my horse was having done to it. I just don’t like this attitude — if there’s drugs there they must have been used. The horses that I sent there went down to have the laser treatment, which takes literally about two minutes. The horse is then hosed and walked for two days and then they come back to me.”
“I accept that, but it’s not too long ago that you were questioning Jim Bolger about bringing up the issue of drugs in Irish racing, and here we have a raid where a load of unlicensed drugs have been found?”
“I was away when this happened. I haven’t talked to anyone about it. As far as I’m concerned [Warwick] has dealt with my horses for tendon injuries. And that’s it. And that does not involve drugs.”
Paul Kimmage’s reporting on the recent raid of a Monasterevin equine farm is gripping, must-read journalism. (€)
2. It was on Monday that Saoirse Noonan was reading back through some old text messages when she came upon one she received in June from a childhood pal. She had just congratulated him on making his debut for Ireland and he had replied to say he knew she would make hers soon too.
“And when you come on, play with a smile and enjoy it,” he said.
There’s been plenty to smile about since for both Noonan and Chiedozie Ogbene, friends since they grew up on the same estate in Grange on the south side of Cork.
Four days after Ogbene made his debut, Noonan was called up to the Irish squad. In October, Ogbene scored his first international goal, against Azerbaijan. Twelve days later Noonan made her debut against Sweden. Last Saturday, she won the league with Shelbourne. A day later, Ogbene scored for Ireland against Luxembourg and was named man of the match. This week, Noonan is preparing to play in Sunday’s FAI Cup final.
By now, the pair must be worn out from sending congratulatory texts to each other.
A week after her friend Chiedozie Ogbene made a splash on the international scene, Saoirse Noonan tells Mary Hannigan of the Irish Times of how she can complete a dream domestic double.
3. Adam Glenn pulled the tap handle, poured a Bud Light and passed the glass to a patron at Jimmy’s Corner, his family’s dive bar just off Times Square. He kept an eye on the front door as customers returned for the first time in 18 months, and Etta James’s “At Last” played on the jukebox. The house rule — Let’s Not Discuss Politics Here — remained posted behind the bar, and new regulations were enforced.
“Can I see your I.D. and vaccination card?” he asked.
Sam Gong, a newcomer, furnished both. Glenn examined them.
“Just pull down your mask a little,” Glenn said.
Gong complied.
“What can I get you?” Glenn asked.
Glenn, 40, lost his father, Jimmy Glenn — a boxer, trainer and cut man — to covid-19 in May 2020. He was 89, and had still come to his place at 10 o’clock each night with a pistol-grip cane and brown Stetson. Tattered electrical tape held together the brass rail, and Jimmy had left behind his old equipment — suture scissors, adrenaline and Vaseline — in a briefcase. To reopen, Adam stitched together family savings and government relief. In defiance of inflation, beers still cost $3, cash only.
Jimmy’s Corner is a famous boxing bar in New York City. As the Washington Post report, the son and heir battles to keep the bar open following his father’s death.
4. The 20 Premier League clubs can rarely agree on anything. Five substitutes or three? Neutral Covid venues, or home and away? European qualification based on league position or exclusive access for a limited few to the starship Super League, gently accelerating out of the game’s stratosphere with most of the resources for life on board?
It just depends where one stands but, in the meantime, congratulations, Gary Hoffman, who seems to have united the game’s most disputatious siblings on a single issue.
Unfortunately for Hoffman, that issue was whether he should continue as Premier League chairman, to which the verdict from a wide cross-section of the league was a resounding, The Hoff Is Off. As with any organisation that is often defined by conflict but avoids it at all costs, Hoffman was gently persuaded to resign. A former Northern Rock chief executive, and a boardroom regular in the financial world, quietly dispatched by the most demanding coalition of shareholders since the last emergency meeting of the Handforth Parish Council.
Sam Wallace of The Telegraph uses the resignation of the Premier League club to explore the constant, complex politicking of football’s most famous league. (€)
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A gripping investigation into the raid of an Irish equine farm and the rest of the week's best sportswriting
1. Jessica Harrington trains at Moone in Co Kildare.
“I’m writing a piece about John Warwick for Sunday.”
“Yes.”
“I believe you’ve known and been using him for a long time?”
“I’ve used him to do my horses’ tendons. He’s good at doing tendons. And that’s all I’ve used him for.”
“Are you still using him?”
“I had a horse there the other day. Yes, I am still using him. And that does not involve any drugs — it’s a laser, a much more unintrusive form of treating tendons.”
“I’m sure you know about the raid and what was found?”
“I know about the raid, but when you do a tendon operation on a horse it’s nothing to do with drugs.”
“But they found drugs in the raid?”
“That has nothing to do with what my horse was having done to it. I just don’t like this attitude — if there’s drugs there they must have been used. The horses that I sent there went down to have the laser treatment, which takes literally about two minutes. The horse is then hosed and walked for two days and then they come back to me.”
“I accept that, but it’s not too long ago that you were questioning Jim Bolger about bringing up the issue of drugs in Irish racing, and here we have a raid where a load of unlicensed drugs have been found?”
“I was away when this happened. I haven’t talked to anyone about it. As far as I’m concerned [Warwick] has dealt with my horses for tendon injuries. And that’s it. And that does not involve drugs.”
Paul Kimmage’s reporting on the recent raid of a Monasterevin equine farm is gripping, must-read journalism. (€)
2. It was on Monday that Saoirse Noonan was reading back through some old text messages when she came upon one she received in June from a childhood pal. She had just congratulated him on making his debut for Ireland and he had replied to say he knew she would make hers soon too.
“And when you come on, play with a smile and enjoy it,” he said.
There’s been plenty to smile about since for both Noonan and Chiedozie Ogbene, friends since they grew up on the same estate in Grange on the south side of Cork.
Four days after Ogbene made his debut, Noonan was called up to the Irish squad. In October, Ogbene scored his first international goal, against Azerbaijan. Twelve days later Noonan made her debut against Sweden. Last Saturday, she won the league with Shelbourne. A day later, Ogbene scored for Ireland against Luxembourg and was named man of the match. This week, Noonan is preparing to play in Sunday’s FAI Cup final.
By now, the pair must be worn out from sending congratulatory texts to each other.
A week after her friend Chiedozie Ogbene made a splash on the international scene, Saoirse Noonan tells Mary Hannigan of the Irish Times of how she can complete a dream domestic double.
3. Adam Glenn pulled the tap handle, poured a Bud Light and passed the glass to a patron at Jimmy’s Corner, his family’s dive bar just off Times Square. He kept an eye on the front door as customers returned for the first time in 18 months, and Etta James’s “At Last” played on the jukebox. The house rule — Let’s Not Discuss Politics Here — remained posted behind the bar, and new regulations were enforced.
“Can I see your I.D. and vaccination card?” he asked.
Sam Gong, a newcomer, furnished both. Glenn examined them.
“Just pull down your mask a little,” Glenn said.
Gong complied.
“What can I get you?” Glenn asked.
Glenn, 40, lost his father, Jimmy Glenn — a boxer, trainer and cut man — to covid-19 in May 2020. He was 89, and had still come to his place at 10 o’clock each night with a pistol-grip cane and brown Stetson. Tattered electrical tape held together the brass rail, and Jimmy had left behind his old equipment — suture scissors, adrenaline and Vaseline — in a briefcase. To reopen, Adam stitched together family savings and government relief. In defiance of inflation, beers still cost $3, cash only.
Jimmy’s Corner is a famous boxing bar in New York City. As the Washington Post report, the son and heir battles to keep the bar open following his father’s death.
4. The 20 Premier League clubs can rarely agree on anything. Five substitutes or three? Neutral Covid venues, or home and away? European qualification based on league position or exclusive access for a limited few to the starship Super League, gently accelerating out of the game’s stratosphere with most of the resources for life on board?
It just depends where one stands but, in the meantime, congratulations, Gary Hoffman, who seems to have united the game’s most disputatious siblings on a single issue.
Unfortunately for Hoffman, that issue was whether he should continue as Premier League chairman, to which the verdict from a wide cross-section of the league was a resounding, The Hoff Is Off. As with any organisation that is often defined by conflict but avoids it at all costs, Hoffman was gently persuaded to resign. A former Northern Rock chief executive, and a boardroom regular in the financial world, quietly dispatched by the most demanding coalition of shareholders since the last emergency meeting of the Handforth Parish Council.
Sam Wallace of The Telegraph uses the resignation of the Premier League club to explore the constant, complex politicking of football’s most famous league. (€)
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