page_title: Horse racing in Ireland
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Horse racing in Ireland / History / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: English: This is Clonespoe, the winning horse in the Irish Cambridgeshire at the Curragh Racecourse in Co. Kildare. Clonespoe was owned by Limerick man, N.J. Grene, and was trained at Patrickswell by R. Moss. The jockey was J. Moylan. The Irish Cambridgeshire was a handicap race over one mile, and the purse was 650 sovereigns for the winner (50 sovereigns for 2nd; 30 sovereigns for 3rd). Clonespoe won by a length. To those in the know, it sounds as if Clonespoe had a fine lineage - by Prince Hermes, dam by Sir Edgar, Lady Norah Date: 2.10 p.m. on Wednesday, 19 November 1924 NLI Ref.: HOG217
context_page_description: Horse racing in Ireland is intricately linked with Irish culture and society. The racing of horses has a long history on the island, being mentioned in some of the earliest texts. Domestically, racing is one of Ireland's most popular spectator sports, while on the international scene, Ireland is one of the strongest producers and trainers of Thoroughbred horses. The Irish horse racing industry is closely linked with that of Great Britain, with Irish horses regularly competing and winning on the British racing circuit.
context_section_description: The First World War didn't initially see the cancellation of horse racing, and Thoroughbreds did not feature prominently among the 300,000 horses. Although the 1916 Rising resulted a 6-week ban on race meetings, they continued shortly afterwards. Horse racing was temporarily banned on 4 May 1917, following complaints concerning the oat intake of Thoroughbreds. The ban led to public outcry, especially in Ireland where some 20,000 people were believed to be employed in the embattled racing industry. Fearing further unrest, the British government gave a concession to allow the Curragh festival of 8–10 May, finally relenting on 20 June. In 1915, the British National Stud was based in the Curragh, becoming the Irish National Stud after independence.
  In the post-independence period, many efforts were made to regulate and support the horse racing industry in Ireland, and a greater effort was made to promote Irish horses internationally. As early as 1926, the Irish Free State legislated to allow off-course betting, and the Tote was introduced in 1930 to raise funds for the industry. The Emergency that accompanied the Second World War was reportedly beneficial to horse racing, as restrictions on foreign and motor travel led to an increase in spectator numbers. The Irish Racing Board, the predecessor to Horse Racing Ireland, was set up in 1945 to oversee the economics of the industry, followed by the Irish Horse Authority in 1995 and Horse Racing Ireland in 2001.
  Measures introduced by these organisations have helped the industry go from strength to strength. The Irish horse racing industry is today worth €1 billion per annum, employs over 14,000 people, and is a major player on the international scene.
caption: Winning Irish horse Clonespoe at the Curragh in 1924, ridden by J. Moylan
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2011:11:18 15:59:59", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5214", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "827", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "618"}