Darren Norris

Glanmire

Sports Journalist and Acting Chief Sports Sub and Racing Editor at Irish Examiner

Irish Examiner chief sports sub/racing editor. Arsenal fan. Proud uncle. Dog Dad to Teddy. All views my own.

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Articles

Epsom Derby 2025: the pin-sticker's guide

2 weeks ago | irishexaminer.com | Darren Norris

It may not attract the attention it once did but the Epsom Derby remains one of the biggest days on the racing calendar and this year’s renewal of the iconic race shapes as an intriguing one. Will Aidan O’Brien win a record-extending 11th premier Classic? Will 2000 Guineas hero Ruling Court stay for Godolphin? Can Galway jockey Rossa Ryan add a Derby to a CV that already includes an Arc? How will supplemented French pair Midak and New Ground fare?
Grand National runners: Pinstickers' guide to 2025 Aintree race

2 months ago | irishexaminer.com | Darren Norris

It's the biggest race of the year and an event in which lots of us take an interest. So which horse should you get behind in Saturday's Aintree Grand National, which is scheduled to get going at 4pm? Here's your guide to the runners and riders ahead of the 2025 renewal. Trainer: Willie Mullins Jockey: Paul Townend Rating: 7/10 Odds: 9-1 An impressive winner of the 2024 renewal but no horse has defied top weight since the legendary Red Rum in 1974. Faces a huge task.
The best Gold Cup-winning performances of the last 25 years

Mar 15, 2025 | irishexaminer.com | Darren Norris

It was billed as the day Galopin Des Champs would join Best Mate, Arkle, and Cottage Rake as a three-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner but the Willie Mullins-trained nine-year-old ultimately had no answer for an inspired Inothewayurthinkin in this year’s Festival feature. Where does Friday’s triumph rank in comparison to the other 24 winning efforts in the opening quarter of this century?
Darren Norris: Galopin Des Champs will show class to make Gold Cup history

Mar 14, 2025 | irishexaminer.com | Darren Norris

The Champion Hurdle and Champion Chase this week serve as cautionary tales warning that nothing is certain in the National Hunt world but surely only bad luck can stop Galopin Des Champs from becoming the first Irish-trained horse since the peerless Arkle to complete a Cheltenham Gold Cup hat-trick.
No coincidence if Fact To File hits cruising altitude to land Ryanair Chase

Mar 13, 2025 | irishexaminer.com | Darren Norris

When Fact To File won the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase at last year’s Cheltenham Festival hopes were high that he would return to Prestbury Park in 2025 as the main threat to Galopin Des Champs in the Gold Cup. Those hopes were enhanced when Fact To File beat his illustrious stablemate into third over a trip just shy of two and a half miles in the John Durkan at Punchestown on his first start outside novice company last November.
The New Lion can defy gloomy Turners Novices' Hurdle history

Mar 12, 2025 | irishexaminer.com | Darren Norris

Challow Novices’ Hurdle winners have a deplorable record in the Grade One Turners Novices' Hurdle but The New Lion can defy that gloomy stat in the opening race on day two of the Cheltenham Festival. The last 20 Challow winners to line up in the Turners have all been beaten but that curse has to be broken at some point and The New Lion, a top-class prospect in the making, is fancied to be the horse to break it.
Cheltenham Day One: Kopek Des Bordes favourite to kick Cheltenham off to winning start

Mar 10, 2025 | irishexaminer.com | Darren Norris

Providing he doesn’t overheat in the preliminaries, Kopek Des Bordes can get punters off to the perfect start to the 2025 Cheltenham Festival by outclassing his rivals in the Michael O'Sullivan Supreme Novices' Hurdle. Six of the 12 runners are trained by Willie Mullins but, having won the Grade One Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival by 13 lengths last month, Kopek Des Bordes is unquestionably the standout Closutton contender for the Festival curtain-raiser.
Charlie McCarthy: 'In my dark days, Kopek Des Bordes pulled me through'

Mar 10, 2025 | irishexaminer.com | Darren Norris

Emotions ran high in the winner’s enclosure after the third race on the second day of last month’s Dublin Racing Festival. The Willie Mullins-trained, Paul Townend-ridden Kopek Des Bordes had just turned the Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle into a procession, winning the sixth Grade One of the weekend by no less than 13 lengths to catapult himself to red-hot favouritism for the opening race of the Cheltenham Festival, a contest then known as the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
Ten key questions ahead of the Cheltenham Festival

Mar 10, 2025 | irishexaminer.com | Darren Norris

As long as he copes with the preliminaries ahead of the opening race of the Festival and jumps as he did at the Dublin Racing Festival rather than at Leopardstown at Christmas, he should prove hard to beat. Last month’s breathtaking 13-length Grade One victory earned him a Timeform rating of 154. To put that figure in context, the last horse to run in the Supreme with a higher pre-race rating was Festival legend Altior, rated 155, before his victory in 2015.
Cheltenham 2025: Eight Festival duels to look forward to

Mar 9, 2025 | irishexaminer.com | Darren Norris

Up until the Dublin Racing Festival, the Cheltenham Festival opener was shaping up to be the most open Supreme in years. Salvator Mundi began 2025 as the favourite despite not having run since last May and while he got the job done in the Moscow Flyer at Punchestown on the second Sunday of the year, his performance didn’t convince everyone.