Adopting the US centralised system in Ireland might not be as mad as it sounds

A week ago, this wide-eyed tourist who had been enamoured by the American experience sat down to write a column espousing how Irish racing might benefit from adapting one of the defining features of the sport in the US. Then common sense got the better of me and fear of ridicule set in.

It’s a terrible thing, societal conditioning, but it’s been a long time since your columnist elected to remain silent and be thought a fool rather than speak and remove all doubt. So here’s to a further lack of ambiguity.

The notion is simply that the American style of communal training bases is something that the Irish racing industry should seriously consider as a long-term solution to the regressive spiral of licensed trainers. In the US, it turns on rows upon rows of barns located on the 'backside of certain tracks.