LOS Angeles-based Newmarket-on-Fergus race horse trainer Carl O’Callaghan trained Kinsale King to win the $2m Group 1 Golden Shaheen at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai last Saturday.Ridden by Garrett Gomez and owned by Dr Patrick Sheehy from Cork, Kinsale King became the ninth American-based horse since 2000 to win the race.The race unfolded exactly as O’Callaghan predicted last week. Garrett Gomez kept Kinsale King behind the Japanese horse Laurel Guerreiro for the first quarter-mile, engaged the leader on the turn and took the lead in early stretch before holding off Rocket Man to win by a half-length. Kinsale King ran about six furlongs in 1.10.89.On December 6, 2009, Kinsale King won the $100,000 Vernon Underwood Stakes Grade 3 at Hollywood Park, LA.“He had a lot of issues with his feet, a lot of quarter-crack problems. My blacksmith, Robert Guest from England, is a real talent. I worked him on the turf at Del Mar to save his feet and got him …

LAST Saturday will be regarded as a day of special significance in the annals of Clare boxing. It was the day when ladies boxing superseded the hitherto male-dominated world of championship winners in the county. Junior ladies Kayleigh McCormack from Kilfenora and Antoinette Keane from the Ennis club won the 57kg and 63kg titles at the National Boxing Championships in Dublin and created a niche for themselves and their sport, setting a marker for their male colleagues in their respective clubs.Clubmates Lee Sherlock in the boy 4 category and Paddy O’Connor in the youth heavyweight (91kg) had to be content with silver in their finals, but Clare mentors Sean Carrig, Tommy Lyons and Patrick McCormack were delighted with the performances of all four boxers who had made their way to the finals after five days of intense action in the National Stadium.Reverting to the action in the awesome confines of the National Stadium in Dublin it must be said that …

THE 2009 teams of the senior hurling and football championships were honoured at The Clare Champion’s fifth annual gala awards night at the Clare Inn Hotel last Friday.This year, for the first time, community leaders were honoured, as well as a number of high achievers in athletics, handball, swimming, hurling and football.Clare Champion managing director John Galvin congratulated the award winners and spoke of the company’s decision to “honour men and women who give of their time within their communities on a voluntary basis”. He went on to say that the awards scheme will continue in next year.Replying on behalf of the award winners, Donal Madden, a member of the hurling team of the championship, spoke of the “importance of this scheme to the thousands of club players”.He went on to compliment the sponsors on the decision to recognise the work of people within their communities by including the community awards. He also availed of the opportunity to congratulate the …

Clare: 1-9 Carlow: 1-11   CLARE are still unbeaten and leading the way in Division 2 of the National Hurling League but those who witnessed their latest display at Dr Cullen Park in Carlow on Sunday will find it difficult to understand how they are in this position. For the second week in succession, Lady Luck smiled on Clare and they were extremely fortunate to come away from the Leinster venue with the maximum points.This was one of the poorest performances from a Clare side for quite some time and there will have to be a huge improvement if they are to get back into the premier division.With a team that showed five changes in personnel and a number of positional switches from the previous week in Antrim, Clare went into action well warned about Carlow’s wins over Down and Wexford in the previous two rounds.Three of the changes were forced on the management team, with Pat Vaughan and Darach …

Clare: 0-12 Longford: 0-9 VERY competent in the first half, not so convincing during the second but Clare did enough in the end to remain unbeaten and on top of Division 4. Nobody in Pearse Park could remember the last time Longford played 35 minutes of competitive football without scoring.The sparse Clare support at the Midland venue would have had equal difficulty establishing if Clare had ever kept their opponents scoreless during the first half of a league game. They did last Sunday and scored nine points themselves, leaving Clare on the cusp of their sixth successive NFL Division 4 win at the interval.Despite the reality that Longford were exceptionally poor, were it not for an excellent Joe Hayes’ save from Francis McGee 11 minutes from full-time, Glen Ryan’s team could have completed what would have been a remarkable come-back. As it was, Longford outscored Clare 0-9 to 0-3 during the second period and eventually dragged themselves to within three …

REIGNING Clare Champion Cup title-holders Clonlara got their campaign off to a winning start when they accounted for Tulla at Dr Daly park on Saturday.Given that the South East Clare side had to line out without the likes of Domhnaill and Cormac O’Donovan, Darach Honan, John Conlon, Nicky O’Connell, Donal Madden, Pat O’Hare and Diarmuid Conway, this was an impressive result.Newly-promoted Whitegate got their campaign off to a great start when they had a one-point win over county champions Cratloe. It was a merited win for the East Clare side on a day when Cratloe scored their goals late in the tie.Tommy Guilfoyle got his term as Newmarket coach off to a good start when they had an impressive win over a Crusheen side who were without their inter-county contingent of Donal Tuohy, Cian Dillon, Pat Vaughan, Alan Brigdale and Gerry O’Grady.Clarecastle, with a strong finish, earned a share of the spoils with Sixmilebridge, while Clooney-Quin put in a strong …

ENNIS U-14s enjoyed victory at the weekend when they won the Garda Cup at St Senan’s on Sunday. In their first game against Kilrush, Ennis led from the start but it was a very tight game in the end, with Ennis winning by seven points. The Ennis side’s next encounter was in the semi-final against hosts St Senan’s and even though the home team notched up the first score, Ennis showed great heart to come back and run out winners by 33 points to 12.This saw Ennis qualify for the final against Bruff. Ennis started off with a great score from Brian Cahill before Bruff came back with an unconverted score. It was a very competitive game with scores difficult to come by.With only five minutes remaining, Ennis were only two points ahead and were soaking up a lot of pressure from Bruff. Ennis made a great break with Evan Courtney and Brian Cahill and went on to score under …

CLARE Cascaders completed a double on Sunday in the NUIG Kingfisher Arena Galway with a 32-19 win over Maree Basketball Club Oranmore. The Ennistymon club secured the cup earlier this month when they beat Maree in the cup final. This capped a very successful week for Clare basketball after Coláiste Mhuire Ennistymon girls did the double in Kerry by being crowned South-West regional winners in the first and second-year finals.Scoil Mhuire Ennistymon travelled to Athea last week to represent Clare in the first year and second year girls’ regional finals. They won both Munster titles on what was a very historic and successful day’s basketball for the North Clare School.On their way to the Clare finals, both teams had an unbeaten run with victories over Ennistymon Vocational School, Kilmihil Community College, Kildysart Community College, Spanish Point Secondary School and Kilrush Community College. In the Clare finals, held at Coláiste Muire in Ennis, Scoil Mhuire’s (Ennistymon) first year team beat Coláiste …

BROADFORD Badminton Club received another boost this weekend when they were crowned Munster Community Games champions in the University of Limerick Arena, for a  second year in succession. After their win over Ennis St John’s last month, to win the Clare title, the U-15 team, led by Clare star Damien Kiniry, booked their place at the national finals after emphatic wins over Kerry and Waterford. The Community Games national finals are being held in Athlone at the end of May (28, 29 and 30) and the East Clare parish will no doubt travel in great numbers as the team hopes to go one better this year after losing out to Wexford in the 2009 final and bring an All-Ireland home to Clare. The Broadford team consisted of Lorraine Kiniry, Cliona O’Brien, Siobhán O’Connell, Róisín O’Connell, Aoife Dillon, Damien Kiniry (captain), Shane Taylor, Diarmuid Moloney, Shane Kiniry and Stiofán Marsh McMahon. In Munster squad BROADFORD Badminton Club was well represented at …

THE Community Games Munster Finals took place on Saturday, with most of the action in the University of Limerick. The handball finals were in Tulla and Clooney and the choir competitions in Sixmilebridge GAA Hall. Clare were represented in all but the table tennis girls’ U-15. Clare hosted the games this year with Mary Lenihan as games director.The following teams have qualified for national finals in Athlone on the weekend of May 28-30.Badminton: Broadford: Damien Kiniry, Shane Taylor, Diarmuid Moloney, Stiofan Marsh McMahon, Shane Kiniry, Lorraine Kiniry, Aoife Dillon, Cliona O’Brien, Róisín O’Connell and Siobhán O’Connell.Chess U-16: Shannon: Robbie Meaney, David Hanley, Darragh Mulqueen Danaher, Samuel Lenihan, James Danaher, Ross O’Connor, Yee Shing Man.Choir U-13: Kilrush:  Aoife Carrig, Rachel Ryan, Ruth Nolan, Megan Broderick, Dylan Broderick, Caroline Lillis, Cathal Daly, Patrick Casey, Megan Walsh, Caoimhe Lyons, Maddy Jarocka, Jessica Gilligan, Anna O’Dea, Ellen Bolton, Emma Cahill, Kate Rutherford, Saoirse Griffin, Melissa Hanrahan, Chantal O’Sullivan, Aisling O’Connell.Choir U-16: Killimer/Knockerra: Leah Callaghan, …

Premier League Bridge Celtic A: 4Avenue United: 4 IN their Premier League clash at O’Briensbridge on Sunday, Avenue United came from behind to snatch a share of the spoils with the home side.Before a big attendance, Celtic started in lively fashion and raced into a three-goal lead, thanks to goals from Paul McEvoy (2) and Ger O’Connell. Just before the half-time whistle, David McCarthy pulled one back for the visitors but Celtic restored their three-goal advantage early in the second half when David Hickey was on target.With six minutes remaining, Eamonn O’Reilly pulled one back for the Ennis side, shortly before he was sent off on a second yellow card. There was just a minute of normal time remaining when substitute Gary Flynn scored to bring the margin back to the minimum.Four minutes of additional time were signalled by referee Padraic Sutton and in the third of those minutes, Mikey Mahoney struck the leveller for Avenue. The point could yet …

DESPITE the fact that it will be a busy weekend on the GAA front across the county, there will be a large number of Clare hurling fans travelling to Thurles for Saturday’s All-Ireland colleges senior hurling final.Appearing in the final for the first time, Ard Scoil Rís from Limerick will take on famed St Kieran’s, Kilkenny. The Limerick side will include a number of Clare players.Cratloe’s Cathal McInerney, joint captain of the team, is expected to be back in the starting line-up, having missed their last two outings due to suspension. He is expected to resume his position at wing-back and the other wing will be filled by Parteen’s Martin Moroney.Sixmilebridge’s Jamie Shanahan is expected to play in attack, probably at corner-forward. Also in the panel are Shane Crehan from O’Callaghan’s Mills and Seán O’Connor from Meelick.The Limerick outfit won the Harty Cup (Munster championship) for the first time in their history a few weeks ago. It took three games …

The 2010 All–Ireland Junior Chess Championships will be held in Ennis, over a three-day period, from Friday, April 9 until Sunday, April 11. The championships will be staged in the Auburn Lodge Hotel and are organised by the Irish Chess Union. The event has never before been held in Clare.Children from as young as five up to 19 will be travelling from all parts of Ireland to compete at the event, with each aiming for a national title.Last year, the tournament was held in Kilkenny, where Clare secured one All-Ireland title. Hiram Wood-Hennessy from Carrigaholt finished joint first in the U-10 age group.This year, the Kilkenny cats want to make an impression in Clare and they are determined to take home a title or two. So far, there are bookings from Derry, Donegal, Kilkenny and Dublin, as well as a large entry from the local chess community.Great chess is expected and the Clare chess community is also planning to showcase …

THE race for the 2010 Intermediate hurling league title got underway at the weekend when there were five games listed for decision.Inagh-Kilnamona had eight points to spare over Wolfe Tones whom they defeated on a score of 0-15 to 0-7.The winners were always comfortable in this one and went in at half-time 0-7 to 0-3 ahead. They stepped up a gear in the second half and some excellent points from Jimmy Carmody, Seán Arthur and Brian Hehir left the game beyond Wolfe Tones. Best for Inagh Kilnamona on the day were Brian Arthur, Brian Hehir and Jimmy Carmody. Meelick opened their season with a comprehensive victory over Corofin. Meelick were cautious going into the game as Corofin were winners of the Junior A Championship last year. The winners were 0-10 to 1-2 ahead at half-time. The introduction of Kenneth Keane worked well as he set up the goal for Adam Sherlock. There were further fine scores from Andy White, Kenneth …

COUNTY Clare Hunt are looking forward to a great day’s racing as they unveil a brand-new left-handed track on the lands of the Lee family at Quakerstown, Boston near Tubber for their annual point-to-point on Sunday. Locals recall that racing went ahead in this area in the past with the last known action having taken place as far back as 1948. Lesabelle, who won the 1973 Galway Hurdle for the Christy Lee/Mark Scully partnership, was put through her paces on these lands prior to scoring at Ballybrit so the link with horse racing at the Burren venue is well established. Action on-track kicks off at 2.30pm with a four-year-old maiden. This is followed at 3pm by a maiden race for five-year-old geldings. A six-year-old and upwards mares’ maiden is next on the list with a winners’ race going to post half an hour later. A six-year-old and upwards geldings’ maiden is the penultimate event with the always popular five-year-old and …