Big problems looming as prize-money fails to keep pace with Europe

Since racing resumed in Ireland last month, the Curragh has struggled to shake its lamentable recent tendency to find itself as a punchline.

The screeching grandstand in a €81 million redevelopment and security breaches that saw significant sanctions for Aidan and Donnacha O'Brien, and also the erroneous withdrawal of a runner that had accessed the racecourse site without anyone in officialdom knowing, have all ensured the headquarters of Irish racing remains the butt of far too many jokes.

Maybe the ones that cut deepest, though, are the jibes about how the restrictions on mass gatherings at least don't affect the Curragh, given how it struggled last year to lure back the public that it had effectively told to stay away during its redevelopment. You reap what you sow, and all that.