LEOPARDSTOWN FESTIVAL:LEOPARDSTOWN'S authorities are set to give a Happy Christmas to the racing industry with €830,000 in prize money up for grabs over the traditional four-day holiday festival.
A total attendance of nearly 50,000 people is expected at the Foxrock track over the festival which starts on St Stephen’s Day and dominates one of the busiest racing periods of the entire year.
Entries for the top Grade One races were released yesterday and top-of-the-cast could be the Champion Hurdle winner Hurricane Fly, although it is unclear if he will be ready to make his first start of the new campaign in the final day highlight, the Istabraq Festival Hurdle. Champion trainer Willie Mullins avoided bringing his star performer back in last month’s Morgiana at Punchestown where Hurricane Fly’s stable companion Thousand Stars proved a more than capable substitute.
Yesterday Mullins played a straight bat to queries about when Hurricane Fly will race next and said: “I will tell everyone when he’s ready to run. I don’t want to start naming targets and then maybe having to change them. When I’m happy with him, he will run.”
Thousand Stars is also included among the six Mullins hopes in an entry of 14 horses for the Christmas Grade One which carries the name of the legendary triple-Champion Hurdle winner Istabraq for the first time. Likely opposition to the Mullins team will include Dermot Weld’s dual-purpose star Unaccompanied.
Leopardstown’s other star Christmas attraction will be the former Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Denman who will bid to follow up his 2007 win in the Lexus Chase on Day Three of the festival.
British champion trainer Paul Nicholls intends using the Leopardstown race as Denman’s sole warm-up for another Gold Cup tilt at Cheltenham and hopes the recent good record of British horses continues. Pandorama last year ended a run of four Lexus wins for the visitors. The other British possibles this time are Jonjo O’Neill’s Welsh National winner Synchronised and Nicky Richards’ Skippers Brig in a 17-strong entry.
Among the home opposition to Denman this time will be the Michael O’Leary-owned Quito De La Roque who misses out on this weekend’s John Durkan to wait for the longer race.
“We’re going to save him for Christmas,” said trainer Colm Murphy yesterday. “If the John Durkan had been a week earlier he would probably have run, but it falls a week later this year and it might come a bit quick before Christmas and the Lexus.”
The Gigginstown team also intend running the exciting novice Last Instalment in the Topaz Fort Leney Chase over Christmas. Philip Fenton’s horse made it two from two over fences by impressively winning last month’s Florida Pearl at Punchestown. He joins other Gigginstown entries like the Drinmore winner Bog Warrior in the Fort Leney.
“Gigginstown have so many good novices this year we have to try and avoid one another, but it’s hard,” said Fenton. “I’d be happy if Bog Warrior didn’t show up, though, as I wouldn’t like to be meeting him after Sunday. Our horse has been very effective on soft ground. He’s a big horse so I wouldn’t like to run him on anything quicker than good to soft.”
The big money pot on offer during the festival is again the Paddy Power Chase for which the sponsors have installed last weekend’s Fairyhouse winner Smoking Aces as their 9 to 1 favourite. Powers also sponsor the Grade One Dial-A-Bet Chase where Big Zeb, the ex-Champion Chase winner, may face old rival Golden Silver.
