Iconic Munster National set to benefit charities in Mid-West

JP and Noreen McManus are teaming up with the BoyleSports JT McNamara Munster National and Limerick Racecourse by hosting a charity sweepstake that will see charities from the Mid-West region receive up to €40,000.

The two day racing festival takes place on October 19 and 20 at Limerick Racecourse.

Under the initiative, local charities will have the opportunity to enter the JP McManus Charity Sweepstake via limerickraces.ie or via email at info@limerickraces.ie. Each of the lucky charities drawn will be matched to a horse in the BoyleSports Munster National.

The charity matched to the winning horse will benefit from a €20,000 donation, with 2nd and 3rd place receiving €3,000 and €2,000 respectively. Each of the remaining charities will also receive a €1,000 donation to put towards a specific project or initiative.

The deadline for charities to submit their charity into the race is Wednesday September 25 at 5pm. The draw of the charities that are chosen into the race will take place on Saturday September 28.

Limerick hurling manager John Kiely has said he is ‘delighted’ to be involved in JP McManus’ latest charity venture which ties in with one of the biggest races staged annually at Limerick Racecourse. Kiely has recently taken up a role working for JP McManus ahead of the 2027 Ryder Cup.

The Galbally man has taken a career break from his teaching duties in the Abbey School in Tipperary Town where he served as deputy principal.

John Kiely explained how the sweeptstake will work.

“We pull out the names of possibly 18 charities, we will be looking to see how many horses are declared for the race. I think we'll have upwards of about 18 charities drawn. We will match them to a horse in a race and that will be done the week of the race” Kiely said.

“JP has came up with this concept, he spotted it in York Racecourse a couple of weeks ago. They had a charity sweepstake alongside that and he thought would be a fantastic idea here in Ireland.

Between the racecourse and what JP has provided, there's a lot of opportunities for the charities to benefit from this particular race,” he said.

“It's a wonderful opportunity and can you imagine for a charity to receive €20,000 that they weren't expecting to get. It makes a huge difference and we would like encourage as many charities as possible in the Mid-West region to go the website limerickraces.ie and register their charity on there. A large of number have already done so but we are just encouraging as many to go register as soon as possible. There's racing on October 19 and 20in Limerick, so there's an opportunity to go racing and it's a very popular meeting. I think there'll be a lot of interest of this. Limerick people and people in the Mid-west Wegion are very good to support all of our sporting bodies.”

John Kiely is now two weeks into his new job working for JP McManus.

“I'm only here two weeks and like anyone starting a new job, I'm only settling in. This is just a small piece of what we're doing here and I'm delighted to be able to give a hand. It's always nice to be able to help charities. Anything I can do to help, I'm very happy to do.”

Speaking about the charity sweepstake, JP McManus said: “I am delighted that we have this opportunity through the sweepstake to support the very many charity and community organisations who do so much in our community here in the Mid-West.”