'It just took off with Willie - now the dream is Appreciate It winning the Gold Cup'
Colm Greaves speaks to owner Michael Masterson about his high-class Dublin Racing Festival squad
Jenny the Donkey has emerged unexpectedly as a bit of a game changer. Ever since Achill Island was first populated 4,000 years ago, it has mostly been associated with magical scenery, scary cliffs, shoals of basking sharks off Keem Bay, warm and welcoming people and, alas too often, industrial levels of emigration. Never, until now, has the island ever been connected with any animal that even remotely resembled a horse.
And yet there she is, Jenny the miniature Donkey, small of stature but looming large on silver screens in the locally filmed and multiple Oscar-nominated Irish film The Banshees of Inisherin, tailing Colin Farrell as he rambles through the windswept, barren landscape and on down to the pub to nurse a couple of puzzled pints while he tries to figure out why Brendan Gleeson doesn’t want to be his friend anymore.
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- 'It was devastating – but as a leader you've got to stand up, pick everyone else up and take them forward with you'
- 'Louder and prouder' - meet the new gambling chief determined to spell out the positives of the industry
- 'He was still 100-1 at the post, so it was hopefully quite well planned' - renowned punter Patrick Veitch on a life in betting and a new venture
- 'Other trainers say how difficult it is to get staff, but I can't say the same - when people come here, they seem to stay'
- 'People love having horses with Willy rather than a miserable git like me'