Well horse racing is currently going through a bit of a 'Hans Moleman' patch. In arguably the most fascinating time of season, much of the excitement of flat racing is being buried by the noisy mayhem of Rugby World Cups, All Ireland Finals and International soccer disasters.

So in case you haven't being paying attention, here is a recap of the main news headlines from recent weeks.

Aidan O'Brien is still a genius, even though George Washington remains a mystery. Jim Bolger is having a deja vu season and may have both the best two-year old colt and filly in the country.

Godolphin's corn is still turning to chaff and as they stubbornly refuse to buy Magnier produced yearlings. Their new strategy is to buy into the best sons of Coolmore stallions so that they can get some of that good Tipperary blood by proxy later on.

In other news, the most expensive two-year old ever, The Green Monkey, finally made it to the track in New York last night after a frustrating year and a half of injury and in a further indication of how far a mighty classic can fall, a horse that was second in a handicap last time out started favourite for yesterday's Doncaster St. Leger.

And finally from the Newsdesk. If you have the stamina to get past the coverage of the GAA, the rugby or the soccer you will be richly rewarded this week. This afternoon The Curragh and Longchamp stage some of the most absorbing flat races of the season, and the great end of season festival 'knees up' gets underway at Listowel tomorrow.

First to the Curragh and Ireland's premier two year old race, the National Stakes.

It's probable that there has never been a more intriguing renewal with such a democratic spread of winning chances. Three of the season's best juveniles, New Approach, Myboycharlie, and Godolphin's Rio de la Plata all line out and whatever wins is likely to spend the winter dealing with the scrutiny that comes with being the favourite for next years 2000 Guineas and Derby.

Rio has been confidently supplemented at enormous cost to take on Ireland's best in Myboycharlie and New Approach. The key may well be the ground. The Irish horses have been winning impressively on soft and it is uncertain how they will handle faster conditions this afternoon. Rio de la Plata won well on good ground at Goodwood and this could hold the key to today's race.

Longchamp stages several Arc trials and while all of them are intriguing, from an Irish point of view the Prix Niel holds most interest. Five of the last eight winners of The Arc have won this race en route and it is notable that Aidan O'Brien has chosen this race for the return of his runaway Irish Derby winner, Soldier of Fortune.

O'Brien has yet to win the Arc but if the ground is soft in Paris on the first weekend of October this could be the one. Today will tell if he is good enough. In the Prix Foy, Manduro, officially the best racehorse in the world, will attempt a mile and a half for the first time. His best form is over shorter distances including an emphatic win against the great Dylan Thomas. If he handles the longer trip today he will start favourite for the Arc in three weeks time.

The Harvest Festival of racing at Listowel next week will be a more eclectic occasion than those at The Curragh or Longchamp. It would be easy to say that the atmosphere at the meeting would be better if Kerry win today, but in truth it would be hard to improve the craic at Listowel whatever happens at Croke Park.

The big main event is the valuable Kerry National on Wednesday and it has attracted entries from all the big National Hunt stables. However there may be another Hans Moleman lurking unnoticed in the shadows. If Ballycullen Boy gets to post he has a decent chance of giving the small Limerick stable of Maureen Danagher their biggest day out. The seven year old has already won three times this summer in a variety of ground conditions and a fairytale win would help get racing back into the headlines again. At last.