Make Irish Racecourses Great Again! How rebel movement is starting to look like a Trumpian crusade

If the suspicion that the five self-styled United Irish Racecourses (UIR) rebels might have embarked on a deeply misguided act of commercial folly has always lingered, it’s a notion that is now growing in veracity. 

As someone who is naturally predisposed to harbour a healthy smattering of anti-establishment sentiments, and also objects to the extent that the media rights money tree has enabled plenty of tracks to deprioritise both the product on offer and racegoers, that’s not a conclusion I’d be rushing to arrive at. 

Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) and its media rights committee were asleep at the wheel when Sports Information Systems (SIS) seized control of Irish racing’s direct-to-home pictures in 2016, so much of the hullabaloo that has followed is of the authority’s own making.