Fairyhouse Winter Festival this Saturday and Sunday
Tuesday, 26 November 2024
Ericka Peciulyte and Teahupoo
“We are delighted with the entries for the weekend. While there are only four remaining in the feature Bar One Racing Hatton’s Grace, they are the current ante-post favourites for the Champion and Stayers’ hurdles.
Teahupoo could face a mouth-watering clash with Lossiemouth as he bids to join some of the most illustrious members of the Valhalla of horse racing by becoming a triple victor of the Bar One Racing Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse on Sunday.
The thousands expected to flock to the two-day Fairyhouse Winter Festival weekend will be the big winners as the current and future stars of racing provide the best of sporting entertainment.
The action gets under way on Saturday with an eight-race programme that includes the Grade Three WillowWarm Hurdle that has ten horses standing their ground.
Sunday’s fixture, which is sponsored entirely by Bar One Racing and will be televised live on RTÉ2, features two Grade One contests – the Bar One Racing Hatton’s Grace Hurdle and the Bar One Racing Drinmore Chase - and the Grade Two Royal Bond Hurdle, as well as a strong support card that includes the €59,000 Listed Bar One Racing Handicap Hurdle and the Bar One Racing Porterstown Handicap Chase.
With the Bar One Racing Hatton’s Grace Hurdle won in the past by luminaries such as Danoli, Doran’s Pride, Istabraq, Limestone Lad, Solerina, Hurricane Fly, Jezki, Apple’s Jade and Honeysuckle, the Bar One Racing Drinmore Chase boasting the likes of Sound Man, Dorans Pride, Don Cossack, Delta Work, Envoi Allen and last year’s winner and subsequent Aintree Grand National hero I Am Maximus among its roll of honour, and horses of the calibre of Moscow Flyer, Hardy Eustace, Hurricane Fly, Jezki, Nichols Canyon, Envoi Allen and Marine Nationale having prevailed in the Grade Two Royal Bond Hurdle, it is little wonder this meeting is long recognised as one that establishes and enhances reputations.
Five horses have won the Bar One Racing Hatton’s Grace Hurdle three times. Remarkably, two of those were owned and trained by the Bowe family of Gathabawn, who won it six times in seven seasons via Limestone Lad (1999, 2001,2022) – who returned after a year novice chasing - and Solerina (2003, 2004, 2005).
Two of the others that replicated Solerina’s three-in-a-row were also mares. Apple’s Jade scored for Gordon Elliott and Gigginstown House Stud from 2016-2018 before being supplanted by the dual Champion Hurdle and dual Mares’ Hurdle heroine, Honeysuckle, in the colours of Kenny Alexander, trained by Henry de Bromhead and ridden by Rachael Blackmore.
It was the Elliott-trained Teahupoo who ended Honeysuckle’s run and the Robcour-owned gelding followed up last year, again under Jack Kennedy. He then recorded the Stayers’ Hurdle double in Cheltenham and Punchestown, continuing the proven trend of winners going on to deliver in the Champion or Stayers’ Hurdles at Prestbury Park.
Lossiemouth, who has been victorious at Fairyhouse previously, would be a considerable threat among the possible three rivals, however. The Susannah Ricci/Willie Mullins mare was a facile winner of the Mares’ Hurdle over this 2m4f trip last year and though missing out on making her seasonal debut in the Morgiana Hurdle on Sunday due to a stone bruise, Mullins quickly suggested that the Bar One Hatton’s Grace Hurdle could be on the agenda.
Beacon Edge, who won the Bar One Racing Drinmore Chase in 2021, may represent Gigginstown House Stud and Elliott, while Elliott also leaves in Maxxum.
Elliott dominates the entries for the Bar One Racing Drinmore Novice Chase, with six of the nine that could line up. These include Shecouldbeanything, last seen scoring at listed level at Bangor-on-Dee to bring her run to four wins in four since Listowel’s Harvest Festival at the end of September.
Croke Park illustrated his liking for the larger obstacles at Fairyhouse at the beginning of the month, while Firefox, who was runner-up twice to at Grade 1 level as a novice hurdler, having previously won a course bumper and maiden hurdle – the latter at this meeting 12 months ago – justified strong market confidence on his debut over fences at Down Royal on November 1.
Pinkerton won the Galway Plate for trainer Noel Meade before giving Found A Fifty a real battle at Grade Two level and is an interesting contender, while the red-hot Henry de Bromhead has included recent Cork Grade Three novice chase winner Gorgeous Tom and Heart Wood, who trounced Corbetts Cross by seven lengths in a listed chase at Wexford in October.
There is a slew of early season winners being considered for a step up in class for the Bar One Racing Royal Bond Hurdle. Romeo Coolio, Bleu De Vassy and Wingmen are among a quartet of entries by Gordon Elliott, while Willie Mullins is well represented too, recent Tipperary Grade Three winner Gaucher among his team of five.
A dozen horses stand their ground and Tom Hogan is dreaming of the big time once more with Cast A Spell, owned by Alan Jamieson Site Services and with the scalp of the much-touted Qualimita on her CV from Navan nine days ago.
The Martin Brassil-trained Best Years Yet (143) tops the ratings in the Listed Bar One Racing Handicap Hurdle, which has attracted 21 entries, with Washington a notable cross-channel contender for trainer Harry Derham.
There are also 21 still in the running for the Bar One Racing Porterstown Handicap, topped by the Matthew Smith horse Another Choice (129).
Saturday’s Grade Three WillowWarm Hurdle has attracted ten entries. Ross O’Sullivan’s stable star Eagles Reign is included, entering deeper waters after winning the Listed Lartigue Hurdle at Listowel. The Gleneagles gelding finished a close second in the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham last March and would be a major contender.
Bottler’secret is a potential representative for local trainer Gavin Cromwell while Wodhooh is in pursuit of a sixth straight triumph since joining the Gordon Elliott yard after racing on the flat in England.
There are two possible British participants too as Harriet Dickin has Dodger Long in the mix and Harry Derham plans on having a travelling partner for the aforementioned Washington in the form of Givemefive, the four-time victor owned by golf’s major winners Graeme McDowell and Brooks Koepka.
Peter Roe General Manager of Fairyhouse, said: “We are delighted with the entries for the weekend. While there are only four remaining in the feature Bar One Racing Hatton’s Grace, they are the current ante-post favourites for the Champion and Stayers’ hurdles. It is currently 4/6 Teehupoo and 11/8 Lossiemouth with the race sponsors, so it should be another informative race. The ground is currently yielding, good to yielding in places and there is selective watering, we are all set for another top weekend’s racing.”