Fairyhouse Easter Festival
The three-day Fairyhouse Easter
Festival begins on Easter Sunday and runs through to Tuesday. An historic
event, the highlight of the meeting is the running of the Irish Grand National
at the track on Easter Monday. One of the biggest sporting events in the
country, the Irish Grand National is steeped in tradition and shares top
billing over the Bank Holiday weekend with the Grade 1 Powers Gold Cup, the
feature race on Easter Sunday. There are a number of important and valuable
races over the three days making the Fairyhouse Easter Festival one of the
cornerstones of the Irish National Hunt season.
Fairyhouse Winter Festival
The last of the big early season National Hunt meetings, the Fairyhouse Winter Festival features three Grade 1 races and a number of major supporting events over two days in early December. The Hatton's Grace Hurdle was first run in 1994 when it was
won by the hugely popular Danoli, trained by Tom Foley. It is a Grade 1
National Hunt hurdle race which is open to horses aged four years or older. Run
over a distance of two miles and four furlongs, the race is named after Hatton's Grace, Vincent
O’Brien’s triple Champion Hurdle winner. Istabraq was a dual winner of the race and
Brave Inca and Hurricane Fly are other winners to have gone on to Champion
Hurdle success at Cheltenham. Trainer James Bowe won the race in five successive years
with dual winner Limestone Lad and the mare Solerina who is the only three-time
winner.
The Drinmore Novice Chase has been a Grade 1 event since
1994 and is the
first Grade 1 event of the season for novice chasers. The race is run over a distance
of two miles and four furlongs. Dorans Pride was an early high-profile winner
of the race for Michael Hourigan and Richard Dunwoody and more recently Harbour
Pilot, Don Cossack and Valseur Lido have prevailed.
The Grade 1 Royal Bond Hurdle is a race for novice hurdlers and is run over the minimum distance of two miles. One of the top races of its kind, it has been won by the likes of Istabraq, Moscow Flyer, Hardy Eustace, Hurricane Fly, Kezki and Nichols Canyon since it was first run as a Grade 1 in 1994.