Pat Smullen

Pat Smullen Race Day To Aid Cancer Trials Ireland Set For Late August

The Pat Smullen race day, which will raise funds to aid Cancer Trials Ireland, will take place at the Curragh on Saturday, Aug. 26. Racegoers will have the opportunity to attend a post-race party with the band Superfly. Pat Smullen's daughter Hannah, former amateur jockey Kate Harrington and Olympian Sue Shortt are among 15 riders participating in the 12-furlong Pat Smullen Cancer Trials Ireland charity race supported by The Grafton Hotel, who are all raising funds individually. The race is held in memory of a family member or friend who...

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Smullen Still Making a Difference Through Cancer Trials Funding

Four summers ago, TDN had the privilege of having Pat Smullen as our weekly columnist. It would be easy to imagine that someone with as much knowledge of the racing game as the nine-time Irish champion jockey would just reel off a few thoughts and consider it job done, but that was not the way with Smullen. It was clear in our weekly chats that he took this new role every bit as seriously as he took race-riding, which he had to give up, reluctantly, at the age of 42,...

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Cancer Trials Ireland to Create Pat Smullen Chair in Pancreatic Cancer

Cancer Trials Ireland, the national organisation dedicated to advancing cancer clinical trials, will create a new position to anchor expertise in pancreatic research in Ireland with the ambition of creating a global centre for treatment and research for a form of cancer with some of the poorest outcomes--the Pat Smullen Chair in Pancreatic Cancer at University College Dublin. The position will require shared time between clinical work as a treating physician at St Vincent's University Hospital--the national surgical centre for pancreatic cancer--and research work at University College Dublin (UCD). Candidates...

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Tom Lacy: 'I Looked Forward To Persian Force Running As If I Owned Him Myself'

Tom Lacy received a heartwarming reception at the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders' Association Awards last week. And rightly so. A legendary figure in Irish racing, Lacy rode 50 winners on the Flat and found only Arkle and Flyingbolt too good aboard Height Of Fashion in two Irish Grand Nationals.  As a trainer, Lacy sent out hundreds of winners from Rhode, County Offaly, including Ingabelle (GB), who later became a hugely important foundation mare at Ballylinch Stud. His sons Barry and Tony rode multiple winners for the stable down through the years....

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Coast to Curragh Charity Cycle Takes Place On August 27

The Coast to Curragh charity cycle will be run for a second year in aid of Cancer Trials Ireland on Saturday, August 27, where the legendary Pat Smullen will be remembered on the day. The Curragh have dedicated the August 27 fixture to the nine-time Irish champion jockey and the racecourse chief Brian Kavanagh revealed that he hopes to grow the event. The Coast to Curragh Cycle, which raised more than €185,000 last year, starts at Laytown Racecourse at 8am taking in seven racecourses and two stud farms in total,...

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Thoughts Turn To June In Moyglare's Milestone Year

It is a year of important milestones for Moyglare Stud, most notably the 60th anniversary of its foundation by Swiss businessman and philanthropist Walter Haefner. The 50th running of the G1 Moyglare Stud S. will also take place on Sept. 11 at the Curragh, the famed Irish racecourse and training grounds which have been the beneficiary of significant support from Eva-Maria Bucher Haefner, who took over the running of Moyglare on her father's death, at the age of 101, a decade ago in June 2012. A passionate equestrian who took...

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Coast to Curragh Raises €145,000 For Cancer Trials Ireland

A total of €145,000 was raised by the inaugural Coast to Curragh charity cycle for Cancer Trials Ireland. Created by Gavin Lynch, the event started at Laytown Races and finished at The Curragh Racecourse. Over 300 people participated, among them Rachael Blackmore, Shane Foley, Barry Geraghty, Paul Carberry and Tadhg O'Shea, in the 155km charity cycle. Members of the late Pat Smullen's family, his wife Frances, son Paddy, and brothers Ger and Brian, also took part. Pat's daughter Hannah and weigh room friend Kevin Manning were waiting at the finish...

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The Weekly Wrap: Like A Hurricane

It's a childish game but I've long amused myself by seeing how many song titles can be weaved into headlines and this weekend's results provided an open goal for a Neil Young classic, not once but twice.  Two hurricanes blew across Town Moor on Saturday at the opposite ends of the distance spectrum. Hurricane Ivor (Ire) (Ivawood {GB}) is an admirable sprinter who has bounced back from a blistering debut for Fabrice Chappet and subsequent illness that ruled him out of much of his juvenile season. He has been creeping...

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Charity Cycle In Memory Of Pat Smullen

The Coast To Curragh charity cycle will be staged on Sept. 25, with a host of racing personalities taking place in the event that will raise money for Cancer Trials Ireland in memory of Pat Smullen. Smullen, nine times Irish champion jockey and a beloved member of the Irish weighing room, lost his battle with pancreatic cancer last September after fighting so bravely and raising millions for Cancer Trials Ireland. The cycle will begin at Laytown Races and finish at The Curragh, a distance of 155 km that will feature...

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The Weekly Wrap: Old Guard, New Blood

When we wrapped up last Flat season, the lofty assumption was that by the start of this new one we would be back to some semblance of normality. How wrong could we have been? After a brutal winter, the pandemic is only now easing to the point where a limited number of owners were permitted to attend racecourses in England and Scotland from yesterday (Monday).  There are not too many areas within racing in which Britain is ahead of Ireland or France—witness the Irish domination of the Cheltenham Festival and...

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Pat Smullen Honoured At The Craven Meeting

The first day of the new season of racing at Newmarket will feature a race named in honour of the multiple Irish champion jockey Pat Smullen, who died last September at the age of 43. The Pat Smullen Memorial H. is a Class 2 contest for 4-year-olds and up on the opening day of the Craven meeting on Apr. 13. It is to be run over the Rowley Mile, where Smullen recorded his first British Classic victory aboard Moyglare Stud's Refuse To Bend (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) in 2003. The race...

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Race Named After Pat Smullen to Be Held at Jebel Ali

Following a directive by His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Deputy Chief of Dubai Police and Public Security, the Pat Smullen Conditions S. will be held at Jebel Ali on Feb. 19, the racecourse announced on Tuesday. The late Smullen, a multiple champion jockey in his native Ireland, passed away from pancreatic cancer last September. During his career as a jockey, he was the retained jockey for Jebel Ali Stables in Dubai from 2000-2002, and was also a stable jockey for His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al...

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