Racing: A modern-day-record crowd of over 20,000 is being tipped to cram into Leopardstown on St Stephen's Day as some of Irish racing's biggest stars blow any remaining Christmas cobwebs away from the holiday period.
Limerick kick off their four-day festival on Tuesday, and one of the busiest afternoon's of the racing year will also include action from Down Royal.
The main focus of attention, however, remains at Leopardstown which has over €1.2 million in prize-money on offer over its four days and star names such as the Gold Cup winner War Of Attrition and the Champion Hurdle hero Brave Inca to fight over the majority of it.
The St Stephen's Day feature will, however, be the Grade One Durkan New Homes Novice Chase, where the JP McManus-owned pair Glenfinn Captain and Wanango are expected to feature prominently.
"Last year we had over 65,000 people coming through the gates over the four days, and obviously we would love to surpass that," said Leopardstown's manager Tom Burke.
That tally included a record crowd of about 20,500 on day two, but that will be under threat on St Stephen's Day, which is a traditional opportunity for race fans around the Dublin area to chase the Christmas hangovers.
The gates will open at 10.15am and punters are being advised to get to Leopardstown early to avoid likely traffic delays along the M50.
Reserved enclosure tickets will cost €30 and grandstand tickets are €16.
The four days will also see a massive betting splurge, with €12 million forecast to be laid at the Co Dublin course alone. That represents almost 35 per cent of the entire betting revenue generated at Leopardstown over the year.
Kicking King flew the flag for Ireland in the traditional holiday feature in Britain, the King George VI Chase at Kempton, for the last two years, but there will be no Irish runner in the race this time.
There will, however, be Irish interest in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on Tuesday as the champion trainer Noel Meade confirmed yesterday Jazz Messenger would run in the race.
That means Meade's top hurdler, Iktitaf, will instead switch to Leopardstown for Friday's bewleyshotels.com December Festival Hurdle, where he is expected to clash with Brave Inca.
Top jockey Conor O'Dwyer will not be at Leopardstown on Tuesday, switching instead to Limerick, where he has good prospects on three horses owned by Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary.
But O'Dwyer and O'Leary will be back at Leopardstown on Thursday, when the 2006 Horse of the Year, War Of Attrition, takes on the triple winner Beef Or Salmon in the Grade One Lexus Chase.
