Flat must be supported at both extremes to sustain a healthy industry

In any given week Irish racing presents many different faces to the world. This degree of variety makes it hard to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Irish racing system in a comprehensive way.

We've reached that transitional stage in the calendar when jump racing takes over the spotlight. It's timely to acknowledge the economic primacy of Flat racing in the overall scheme of things. It may be the poor relation of the sport in terms of popular appeal in Ireland, but it far outstrips the parochially confined arena of jumping by all objective criteria of international significance.

Let's consider some items of news from the past seven days, and try to work out which events most accurately represent the current state of play.