This weekend’s festival action at Fairyhouse has a “Winter” tag but some unseasonal watering has already begun at the Co Meath track before Sunday’s Grade One programme.
Despite heavy weekend rainfall, the taps have had to be turned on to ensure suitable going for what is traditionally one of Irish jump racing’s biggest pre-Christmas highlights. The event has been disrupted in the past by snow and freezing conditions, but the issue this time is very different.
“We had 27mm of rain over the weekend,” said Fairyhouse’s general manager Peter Roe. “But walking it this morning, it is yielding, good to yielding in places. There’s a dry forecast ahead so we’ve decided to try to keep ahead of it. I’ve never had to water this fixture before. We had watered before the rain the last two weekends, so it is coming back but it’s not quite where we want it just yet.”
If that’s one novel element to the “Winter Festival” another will be the demotion from top-flight status of the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle.
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Traditionally the opening leg of a triple-Grade One card highlighted by the €120,000 Bar One Hatton’s Grace Hurdle, the Royal Bond has been won in the past by luminaries of the sport such as Istabraq (1966), Hardy Eustace 2002) and Hurricane Fly (2008).
When Marine Nationale won in 2022, he beat a trio of subsequent Grade One winners, Irish Point, Ashroe Diamond and Champ Kiely. Last year’s race was won by Farren Glory, after which Horse Racing Ireland’s race planning section opted to demote it to Grade Two.
“It’s a technical thing. Of course you’d love to see the three Grade Ones. But would you have had any different horses for Grade Two as Grade One? I don’t think so,” said Roe.
“HRI probably felt there were too many Grade One races and having a Grade One this early in the season didn’t fit. HRI have kept the value as it is so that’s a positive.”
This Winter Festival comes hot on the heels of Punchestown’s Premiere line up and the previous weekend’s Navan Racing Festival as part of a busy series of valuable cards that has seen the National Hunt season step up several notches.
If that’s good news for National Hunt fans, it does put pressure on a necessarily limited talent pool. Fairyhouse officials are keeping fingers crossed that Willie Mullins’s top-class mare Lossiemouth can take on Teahupoo in Sunday’s Hatton’s Grace.
She is one of a handful of Mullins runners still in the mix for Sunday’s festival highlight before Tuesday’s acceptance stage after being forced to miss last weekend’s Morgiana due to a sore foot.
With the Morgiana first and second, Brighterdaysahead and State Man, being unlikely to make quick reappearances, competition for the hat-trick-seeking Teahupoo could be scarce if Lossiemouth doesn’t make the line-up.
Teahupoo is on target to try to join an exclusive group of triple-Hatton’s Grace winners. Top-class mares Honeysuckle and Apple’s Jade won it three times each, as did the Michael Bowe pair, Limestone Lad and Solerina.
As for the series of rolling weekends action, Rose commented: “We all try to mind our own, but it does build public awareness of racing, which is a positive.
“But, of course, there’s only a limited number of horses going around. A lot of the Morgiana horses were entered in the Hatton’s Grace and vice versa. The John Durkan works out well because there’s no other race for those horses; hurdling there is.”
On top of that, the Mullins trained Mystical Power will skip Fairyhouse and travel instead to Newcastle for Saturday’s Fighting Fifth Hurdle. The son of Annie Power was quickly made an 11/8 second favourite behind Sir Gino after 11 were left in the race at Monday’s forfeit stage.
“Willie is very happy with him, so the plan, all being well, is to go to Newcastle. The Morgiana looked very hot, so this was another option for him, and he goes there in nice form,” reported JP McManus’s racing manager Frank Berry.
Sunday’s other Grade One at Fairyhouse is the Drinmore Novice Chase, which could see Gordon Elliott with a handful of possible contenders as he pursues a record-extending eighth success in the 2½ contest.
