Ireland's authorities have talked the talk about racehorse welfare - now they need to actually do something

When Martin Heydon was appointed the new government's minister for agriculture, food and the marine in January, Irish racing's chiefs linked arms and danced a jig. They had got their man.

Heydon had served as a junior minister in the department and was a readymade advocate of the racing and breeding sectors, a species that tends to be of the lesser-spotted variety in Kildare Street these days. His ascension to the throne meant the thoroughbred sector had the friend it needed in high places and he was welcomed accordingly. 

He was the only government minister who didn't get a foreign St Patrick's Day jaunt this year, but he did undertake the chore of visiting the Cheltenham Festival, where he preached to the converted about "horseracing putting Ireland on the map", both sides positively salivating over each other.