Staying while the redecorating is taking place? Frankly it's bonkers

Imagine getting your bedroom walls painted, a wooden floor laid down and wardrobes installed but turning down the cosy spare room for a few nights while the transformation is taking place. Instead you sleep on your old mattress under the rubble and fumes. If that's not bad enough, you have to stay there on your wedding night.

Not even the most comical of couples would consummate their marriage in such unromantic surroundings, yet in a few weeks' time Ireland will host its flagship Flat race at a racecourse that resembles Glastonbury with so many marquees peppered around the enclosures.

The Curragh might be the home of Irish Flat racing but why on earth are we still visiting the house while it is being redecorated? There is a perfectly suitable place a few miles down the road that constantly caters for large crowds and would love to stage the Irish Derby and both days of Irish Champions Weekend while the Curragh is being transformed from a veritable wreck into a wonderland. Leopardstown could even stretch to Guineas weekend if Pat Keogh, the chief executive, was asked nicely enough.