The course with a solution to almost everything

Monday, 2.25pm, and I already have the winner of the opener on Tuesday.

The source is an elderly gentleman, the wrong side of 70, who is taking a drag out of a fag on the corner of High Street. “Mr something will win the first on Tuesday. It's a funny name. I can't pronounce it. That young pup Roger (sic) Whelan is riding it.” Two drags later and I find out why. “He's a great leaper.”

I had never been to the Killarney races before. It was time to see what all the fuss was about. It can't be as good as they all say, can it? It can you know. You can walk there for starters. Just 12 minutes from my room in the Plaza hotel. Then it greets you. A view that might even cheer up Roy Hodgson – the Macgillycuddy's Reeks standing tall and proud behind the main stage.