Ground conditions are forecast to be soft for Easter Monday’s Boylesports Irish Grand National as the countdown continues to Ireland’s richest jumps race.
Final declarations for the €500,000 highlight at Fairyhouse take place on Saturday morning at about the same time as the worst of recent torrential rain at the Ratoath track is anticipated to stop.
That will be good news for the expected 16,500 attendance at the historic sporting finale to the three-day Easter festival which starts on Saturday.
“Demand has been high and 16,500 is at about a comfortable capacity for here. Pre-event sales have been very good and we’re very nearly at a point where we will go to an all-ticket event for the National,” the Fairyhouse boss Peter Roe said.
Welsh dragon roars at Fairyhouse as Haiti Couleurs lands Irish Grand National
Gavin Cromwell tries to put seal on landmark campaign with first Irish Grand National success
Willie Mullins lands Grade One Easter Sunday double at Fairyhouse
Saturday’s Fairyhouse races rescheduled for Tuesday after heavy rain leaves standing water on track
“We’ve had more rain since Wednesday morning than in the previous six weeks. We had been watering and the ground we didn’t water is good to firm, so it was the right thing to do. I don’t see it going heavy. I think it will be soft,” he added.
This year’s late Easter date is viewed as something of a double-edged sword by officials.
“We’re clashing with the Munster championship this weekend which we’ve never done before. We are actually three weeks later than last year. But that means an extra three weeks since Cheltenham and it means we have a cracking Grade One Mares Hurdle on Sunday,” Roe said.
A maximum field of 30 runners will be declared for the National, with the cross-channel hope Haiti Couleurs a general 6/1 favourite. The Cheltenham Festival winner is trained in west Wales by Rebecca Curtis.
“He seems in really good form, healthy and well. So, we’re very excited to be bringing him over to Ireland. I couldn’t be happier with the horse. It was great to win at Cheltenham and he came out of that really well.
“He had a nice easy couple of weeks after and he’s been back in full swing for the last month. So, it’s all systems go and we’re looking forward to our first runner in the Irish Grand National,” she said.
Curtis will have her first runners at Fairyhouse this weekend. The Irish racecourse is closer to her Pembrokeshire outpost than Plumpton, where Willie Mullins will have half a dozen starters on Sunday as he continues his chase of the British trainers’ championship.
Mullins trails Dan Skelton by £37,524 (about €43,700) going into the weekend, having already secured prize money in Britain this season of £3,142,809 (over €3.6 million.)
In 2024 he became the first Irish-based trainer to win the British title since Vincent O’Brien 70 years previously, and Mullins is going all out to retain it when the cross-channel season comes to a conclusion next Saturday.
He runs four in Sunday’s Sussex Champion Hurdle worth a hefty £75,000 topped by the former Ebor and County Hurdle winner Absurde. Harry Cobden rides him while Nico De Boinville is on board topweight Daddy Long Legs.
Mullins is a 1/3 favourite to edge out Skelton, who has runners in Britain on Saturday. Next week could see the rivalry extend to less glamorous venues, with Mullins having made entries at Ludlow, Kelso and Perth.
The Mullins team can’t be accused of taking their eye off the home scene, with 32 runners set to line up over Saturday and Sunday.
The include Asterion Forlonge, who will try to repeat his 2024 success in Cork’s Grade Three Chase highlight on Sunday. The race is named in memory of the late Michael O’Sullivan, the 24-year-old local rider who suffered fatal injuries in a fall at Thurles in February.
