Horses `should be raced in President's colours'

Horses should be raced in the President's colours, reviving a traditional practice, the Dail was told. Mr Sean Power (FF, Kildare South) said: "It is a great way of advertising the racing industry and I urge the Minister to encourage the President, if she needs encouragement, to resume this practice." Given the "wonderful success of the National Stud and its sires, this an opportune time for horses to run in the colours of our President once again". Mr Power said it would mean a great deal to the industry. "I hope we will not have to wait long for it to happen".

He noted the success of a 17member syndicate called the Grand Alliance, made up of Dail deputies from both sides in the House, which owns a horse called Arctic Copper, which had had "tremendous success in bumpers, hurdles and lately, chases".

He was speaking during a debate on the National Stud (Amendment) Bill, which updates the framework under which the National Stud operates. During the debate, Mr Alan Dukes, Fine Gael's agriculture spokesman, called for racing punters to be represented on the controlling board of the new authority which governed racing.

It was "absolutely crazy" that "we should embark on a new phase of development in the racing industry, yet the 13-member board will be composed of every interest except the punter's". Punters "are the final consumers of the product of the industry" and there would not be a racing industry without people to bet on it.

Mr Brendan McGahon (FG, Louth) paid tribute to the Turf Club, which has been subsumed into the horse racing authority.

"Perhaps it has outlived its era but it certainly did a reasonable job in helping the industry get established and acknowledged by racing industries throughout the world." He hoped it would have a continuing if reduced role because the potential new "tsars" of Irish racing had made a major contribution to the industry but "domination and monopoly is not what we want in the racing industry".