The richest race of the year at Naas highlights Ireland’s Bank Holiday Monday programme where the English raider Jel Pepper can prove best in the €200,000 Ballyhane Stakes.
Cross-channel raiders have won just once in the five-year history of the lucrative juvenile contest that is worth €100,000 less than in 2024.
A handful of British-based hopefuls still make the journey for a 24-runner contest in which Joseph O’Brien has a quarter of the field.
They are topped by the filly Green Sense, winner of the Group Two Prix Robert Papin on her last start and who boasts an official 102-rating.
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She must concede 4lbs to Jel Pepper who also has Group form having finished an unlucky third to Zavateri in the July Stakes at Newmarket. The latter followed up in style at Goodwood last week.
Given an unsettled weather outlook, the fact Jel Pepper won on soft ground on his debut is a plus too.
“We missed Goodwood with him to go to Naas. It is great prize money and I believe the ground will be on the easy side of good, which will play to his strengths as he likes a bit of a cut in the ground,” trainer Oliver Cole said.
Henry de Bromhead’s Letiza bids to follow up her June success at Down Royal in the concluding handicap at Naas. The horse she beat in the north, Dancing Steve, has won since and a 6lb hike in the ratings for that doesn’t look too severe.
There is also Bank Holiday jumps action in Cork.
The Ribblesdale winner Garden Of Eden failed to land a blow in Sunday’s German Oaks for Ryan Moore and Aidan O’Brien.
The Irish filly never got into contention in the Group One Henkel-Preis der Diana in Düsseldorf and was out of the money behind the locally trained winner Nicoreni.
Meanwhile, the 2025 Galway festival ended on Sunday with an almost 8% increase in attendances for the seven days.
An official attendance of 125,997 was returned for the week compared to 116,374 last year. It was also up on the 2023 figure of 122,367. The biggest crowd of the week was 26,234 on Friday evening.
Not surprisingly, on-course betting was also up. Turnover in the betting reached over E7.5 million during the week, an increase of 13% on 2024. Tote betting was up by 20% to E6 million.
Willie Mullins was leading trainer at the festival for a 10th time. Dylan Browne McMonagle was top jockey on the flat with four winners. Jack Kennedy, who got the Galway Hurdle in the stewards room on Thursday, won the National Hunt prize with three winners.
“We’ve been really fortunate with the weather over the week and there has been great crowds and a great atmosphere across the enclosure.
“There has been a great mix of winners between trainers, jockeys, owners and syndicates. Everybody has been in the mix here and there has been plenty of drama and great stories,” said the Galway boss Michael Moloney.
