Hell for Leather:saddles blaze across sands of Kerry's Rossbeigh Strand
The annual racing event on the beach at Rossbeigh Strand in Co Kerry took place at the weekend, with horses running on the 3.2km (two miles) of sand spit which extends out into Dingle Bay.
Unlike Puck Fair - which takes place in nearby Killorglin - the Glenbeigh races have no set dates
Subject to the tides, they usually take place around the first weekend in September.
Over the last 12 years, the races have spawned a festival that has made them better-known.
However, the races themselves are older than the festival and John Millington Synge wrote about them during his stays in Glenbeigh.
Sometimes the horses fancy a swim and lose their concentration. At least one horse "was making for the Skelligs" but was coaxed back, local publican and councillor Michael Cahill said yesterday. He recalled an occasion some years ago when a horse jumped into the water and swam from Rossbeigh Point to Inch on the Dingle peninsula opposite.
Mr Cahill's daughter, Anna (9), had her first race at the meeting at the weekend.
She took part in the pony races with a variety of jockeys of the same age or even younger.
This year, the prize money increased to €15,000 and the main race had a fund of €2,500.
The Glenbeigh races will shortly rival those of Dingle races, predicted Mr Cahill.