29-07-2025
Horse at centre of 'huge controversy' declared to run at Galway Races
The horse at the centre of one of Ireland's most controversial races in recent times will run for the first time since at Galway on Wednesday for new connections.
Redwood Queen is declared to run in the Tote, €5,000 Guaranteed Jackpot Irish EBF Mares Handicap Hurdle - her first outing since a now infamous race at Wexford in May.
That race is still the subject of an Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board review into the contentious unseat of jockey Philip Byrnes at the closing hurdle.
Byrnes parted company with the mare, who was a serious market drifter before the Claiming contest, and handed victory to odds-on favourite and well-backed Beacon Edge from Gordon Elliott's stable.
She was then trained by his father Charles Byrnes but was subsequently claimed for €6,000 after the race and is now in the care of CIan Collins and owned by the Del Boy Partnership. The mare is also entered in two flat races on Friday. Philip Byrnes (right) is unseated from Redwood Queen (Image: Racing TV)
The incident at Wexford attracted a huge amount of attention all over the world at the time - as far as Australia and the USA - and social media footage has been viewed millions of times online.
Redwood Queen traded at 1/7 on approaching the final obstacle which she appeared to jump well before Byrnes slipped off the saddle, landing on his knees.
Although the on-course stewards at Wexford took no action on the day of the race, the IHRB are conducting a review into the race with the results of that investigation, if any, yet to be made public.
The review was to take into consideration the incident on the racecourse and other factors, such as betting patterns of the race.
Following the race Charles Byrnes gave his verdict on the unseat saying: "He (Philip) was trying to get the mare to go in and pop it, because obviously she had the race won, and she came up out of his hands and blew him out of the saddle. There's no one hurting more than Philip about it."
The IHRB gave no timeline on the conclusion of the review with a spokesman saying on June 12: 'Depending on the nature of the matter, the IHRB may also engage with external service providers or stakeholders as appropriate.
'The current review into the Wexford matter is being conducted in line with our procedures.'
