It's a mistake to deprive so many of seeing Irish racing

Having been following horseracing for seven decades, I have now sadly reached a point of being virtually out of touch with the sport in Ireland after At the Races, now Sky Sports Racing, lost live coverage of meetings in my home country at the start of 2019.

My earliest memory of racing goes back to the Grand National of 1953 won by Early Mist and hearing the commentary on BBC Radio. In the 50s most of the big races in Ireland were broadcast by Radio Eireann with the legendary Michael O’Hehir providing commentaries.

Moving on into the 60s, I became a regular attender of Irish meetings and the most abiding memory of that era is seeing the incomparable chaser Arkle in action at Fairyhouse, Leopardstown and Navan.