Tom Red
This afternoon (Thursday), last Tuesday’s postponed Punchestown card is being run with declarations standing at 11.50 am. Tomorrow evening’s racing is on the flat under lights on the all-weather at Dundalk at 5.15 pm. Saturday afternoon sees racing at Fairyhouse starting at 12.02 am, featuring the Racing TV Now Novice Chase.
Sunday’s card at Navan is sponsored by Irish Stallion Farms EBF, featuring the Future Champions Flat Race, off at 12.20 pm. There is racing in Ireland on Monday at Naas in the afternoon.
Coverage on TV starts tomorrow with five races from Cheltenham, including the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase, with two races from Bangor-On-Dee on ITV. On Saturday, there are seven races on ITV, five from Cheltenham, including the Grade 2 Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle, and three from Doncaster.
Weekend review
Last Saturday five went to post in the Tingle Creek and WP Mullins’ Il Etait Temps at 8/11 favourite, beat Jonbon and L’Eau du Sud by 9l and the same. There were no Irish raiders in the Henry VII Novice Chase and Nicky Henderson’s Lulamba won a four-horse race at 2/5 by 9½l from Be Aware. At Aintree, Ross O’Sullivan’s Bibe Mus, 2/1f, finished 2nd in the Juvenile Hurdle beaten by Donald McCain’s Lord at 6/1.
In Ireland, both Gordon Elliott and Willie Mullins had trebles at Navan with Saint Baco, Doctor Steinberg, and Predators Gold all ridden by Danny Mullins, and Elliott with Road Exile, Gringo d’Aubrelle ridden by Micheal Kenneally, and Down Memory Lane, the other two were ridden by Jack Kennedy.
Elliott and Kennedy continued their run in Cork with a four-timer. They won both divisions of the maiden hurdle with Lord Rouge at 100/30 and Kazansky at 3/1, the Grade 2 EBF Mares Novice Chase with Kala Conti at 11/4 and Grade 2 Hilly Way Chase with Found A Fifty also 3/1.
Racing news
Punchestown’s Tuesday meeting was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions, specifically the high winds forecast under the orange warning for Storm Bram. The course was fit for racing. Cross-channel, Ayr was waterlogged on Tuesday and was abandoned.
Barry Connell’s Champion Hurdle contender William Munny, who has suffered a setback, will not run over the Christmas festive period and will be aimed at the Dublin Racing Festival. The 7-Y-O has been well supported for the Champion Hurdle and is now a general 8-1 chance for the festival day one highlight. A dual bumper winner, he bolted up in Listed company at Punchestown before chasing home Kopek Des Bordes in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham.
Blackstairmountain, who won the Nakayama Grand Jump in Japan in 2013 has died at the age of 20. Bred by Jackie Mullins and owned by Rich Ricci he scooped €565,000 in prize money, a huge sum in those days. He was ridden to victory by Ruby Walsh and won eleven races in his career – five of them under son Patrick.
Rachael Blackmore, who retired from a glittering career in the saddle in May, received the Contribution to the Industry Award at the annual Horse Racing Ireland Awards 2025 in Dublin this week – an award and title she shares with, among others, the Aga Khan, Jessica Harrington, and JP McManus.
