Under starter's orders for Limerick Christmas Racing Festival

THE four-day Mr Binman Limerick Christmas Racing Festival gets underway at Limerick Racecourse on St Stephen's Day.

After operating behind-closed-doors for the 2020 Christmas Racing Festival, Limerick Racecourse is able to welcome back racegoers this year. However, the attendance figures on each of the four days of the Festival, which runs until December 29, is restricted to 5,000.

The opening day of the Festival, St Stephen's Day, is now sold out. The opening race is due off at 12.25pm.

Five graded races will be contested over the four-day festival at Greenmount Park comprising of 28 races, all of which are sponsored. The December 26 feature race, the Grade 1 BoyleSports Faugheen Novice Chase, is due off at 2.40pm.

Limerick Racecourse's interim general manager Paddy Dunican said: “We are disappointed that we are limited to 5,000 people each day, but equally so, we can understand that the Government have to bring in new restrictions to help curtail the spreading of the Covid-19 Omicron variant. We will be following the new Government regulations and continue to monitor the situation closely,

“The new restrictions have created additional challenges for us all. Limerick is a big racecourse with large open-air spaces.
“We are also investing a significant amount of money into providing additional outdoor facilities including marquees, outdoor catering units and bars, etc for all of our customers to have a safe and enjoyable experience.

“Sport is the biggest creator of bringing people together and creating collective experiences. Race meetings are places to meet people and as we have seen in the past, people are willing to trade certain comforts, such as happily standing outside in open air covered areas, wearing warm jackets, scarves and hats, because they are out watching racing, meeting people and socialising.

“The limit of 5,000 people will affect us on St Stephens Day, In the past we have had far bigger attendances on that day, and we are now advising people to book their tickets early online to ensure that they get a ticket, as tickets are selling fast and to avoid disappointment.

“We will be able to accommodate 20,000 racegoers at our Christmas Festival, which is a massive number of people over the four days. This our new norm, which we all have to adopt too and we are looking forward to staging a great Christmas Festival.”

BoyleSports are sponsoring a race on each of the four days of this month’s Christmas Racing Festival at Limerick Racecourse.

BoyleSports are the new sponsor of the BoyleSports Faugheen Grade 1 Novice Chase on St Stephen’s Day, the BoyleSports Bumper on the 27th December, the BoyleSports Dawn Run Grade 2 Mares Novice Chase on December 28 and the BoyleSports Sporting Limerick Grade 2 Hurdle on December 29.

The St Stephen's Day BoyleSports Faugheen Grade 1 Novice Chase is the feature race of the festival. Since being upgraded to Grade 1 status, the race has been won by the likes of Hardline, Faugheen and by Colreevy 12 months ago.

Previous Grade 1 winners Beacon Edge, Ferny Hollow and Cheltenham Festival hero Vanillier were among the 17 entries released earlier this week. Vanillier's trainer Gavin Cromwell is keeping his options open with the Drinmore Chase runner-up Gabynako also included.

The late Andrew McNamara was a standing dish at Limerick Racecourse for many years, which is why his local track will run a race in his honour on the opening day of the Christmas Racing Festival.

The BRC McMahon Reinforcements Andrew McNamara Memorial Chase will be part of an exciting afternoon of competitive action.

The revered trainer from Croom, who famously won the Arkle Chase at Cheltenham with Boreen Prince in 1985, died at the age of 76 last month. His two sons, Andrew Jnr and Robbie, both enjoyed success at the festival as jockeys and Andy, as he become known to avoid confusion and who is now training himself, will be bidding to land the spoils with a horse formerly in his father’s care.

“It’s lovely to have the race named after Dad,” says McNamara, a 15-time Grade 1 winner in the saddle who now has a yard in Athboy.

“There’s a bunch of us going down. Some friends of Dad’s helped to organise the race in his name and we’re very grateful to Limerick for doing it.”

Entries have closed for Day Two of the Mr Binman Limerick Christmas Festival in which the highly-touted Ginto and recent Punchestown winner Freedom To Dream are significant inclusions in the Grade 2 Lyons Of Limerick Jaguar Land Rover Novice Hurdle on Monday, December 27.

Meanwhile, members of Limerick's 2021 All-Ireland senior hurling winning side are due to be in attendance at Limerick Racecourse with the Liam MacCarthy Cup on December 28.

Patrons are advised to book their tickets online at www.limerickraces.ie to ensure ease of access. General admission is priced €20 for December 27, and €15 for December 28 and 29. Children under 12 go free. Follow Limerick Racecourse's social media platforms for updates and special offers.