WHATEVER way results go on the track this weekend, the biggest winner for Irish racing will be if the Dublin Racing Festival can go ahead as planned.
Here’s hoping the 8am raceday inspection goes positively, but, regardless, we should be properly grateful to the ground staff and team at Leopardstown for their immense efforts over what must have been a seriously stressful week for all involved.
The Co Dublin course has appeared to handle the episode as well as could have been hoped by getting on the front foot in their communication, and the same goes for the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board regarding their updates with clerk of the course Paddy Graffin. Let’s hope top-quality racing is the story we’re all talking about come the end of the weekend.
There’s no doubt that nature of the DRF’s condensed schedule of eight Grade 1s over two days is at the centre of its appeal. There is minimal fluff and a clear concentration of quality in comparison to Cheltenham’s four-day programme, which probably could be shoehorned back into three days again but for obvious commercial implications.
That said, could a schedule change strengthen the current DRF offering even further?
There is no obvious place for Ireland’s top-level staying horses to run at the meeting and, on a weekend full of champions, no representation for that division feels like an opportunity missed.
Irish-trained runners are currently responsible for filling the top three places in the Stayers’ Hurdle ante-post betting at Cheltenham, yet we will not be seeing any of those horses in action at the DRF.
Where do these horses tend to run instead? Well, there are two likely options around this time in the calendar, though neither may traditionally appeal to the elite stayers, who end up not running at all. For example, the first three home in last year’s Stayers’ Hurdle were all Irish-trained. When they reached the frame at Cheltenham, it was the first time that any of them had run in the calendar year; Bob Olinger absent since the previous Christmas at Leopardstwon, Teahupoo without a run since the Hatton’s Grace on December 1st and The Wallpark not sighted since the Long Walk Hurdle on December 21st.
The two Irish options on the table for them around this window are the Grade 2 Galmoy Hurdle over just shy of three miles at Gowran Park (January 22nd) and the Grade 2 Boyne Hurdle over two miles, five furlongs and 180 yards at Navan (February 8th this year).
Timely matter
With just 17 days between the Galmoy and Boyne, simply putting on a new three-mile open Grade 1 for the same horses bang in the middle doesn’t make any sense.
As it stands, though, do either the Galmoy or the Boyne really feel like standout quality races right now when the best stayers are often bypassing them?
The Galmoy has been run on soft, soft to heavy or heavy ground every year since at least 2010. Some connections won’t want to turn up for such a dour test just three and a half weeks after Leopardstown’s Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle. It might have worked for a stamina specialist like Home By The Lee this year, but it won’t be up every horse’s street. In fact, the only horse to win the Galmoy and follow up at Cheltenham in the same season since at least 2010 is Presenting Percy, who captured the RSA Novices’ Chase (essentially not a staying hurdler then, and he was campaigned in a most unorthodox manner that season).
The Boyne is typically another week closer to Cheltenham than the DRF, which may not suit Festival hopefuls either. The word ‘heavy’ has been in the description for 11 of the last 15 renewals. too. In that period, just seven of the winners even lined up at Cheltenham, and the only one to win was Tiger Roll in the 2019 Cross Country. Again, like Presenting Percy, he doesn’t really fall into the staying hurdler category we’re talking about strengthening the programme for. As it stands, this is the current schedule of open, non-handicap graded options in Ireland over two miles and a furlong and further. There are only four races from after Christmas to the end of the season:
January 22nd: Galmoy Hurdle (Grade 2), Gowran Park - 2m 7f 110yd
February 8th: Boyne Hurdle (Grade 2), Navan - 2m 5f 180yd
April 6th: Ballybin Hurdle (Grade 2), Fairyhouse Easter Festival - 2m 4f
April 30th: Champion Stayers Hurdle (Grade 1), Punchestown Festival - 3m
If we were to create a DRF option for the top stayers around, some willingness to change would be required from Gowran and Navan, but could this be a workaround for the greater good of the Irish National Hunt programme?
- Galmoy Hurdle remains at Gowran but switches to Red Mills Day on February 14th. This strengthens the Red Mills card, which already has two graded races. The race distance drops to as close to Boyne Hurdle’s extended two mile and five furlongs as possible (depending on an optimum starting position).
- This new DRF contest is upgraded to Grade 1 level, meaning a prize money boost (in accordance with HRI’s strategy announced last week) to €120,000 in 2027, versus a €45,000 pot at Navan this year. This should incentivise an appearance from the Irish stayers who are currently not racing between December and March.
- Distance for the new DRF race (formerly the Boyne) is increased to three miles - same as the listed handicap hurdle at Leopardstown this Saturday. We are obviously facing deep ground at Leopardstown this weekend, but, historically, the ground is not as testing at the DRF as would often be the case for these cards at Navan or Gowran. In other words, a DRF three-mile Grade 1 should not be as gruelling as the Galmoy often turns out to be.
- The later date for the Galmoy on Red Mills Day ensures there is still the facilitation of a run in this window for Boyne Hurdle horses. Less than half of the last 15 Boyne winners went to Cheltenham anyway, so running a week later than before shouldn’t have a massive impact in a timing sense. They still have an extended gap until their next Irish graded option at Fairyhouse’s Easter Festival.
Of course, the two elements that would be impacted in such a switch around is Navan losing a blacktype race from its calendar and Gowran having one of its races swapped away from Thyestes Day.
To be fair, it would not be ideal for Navan, but the track did only recently receive a new pattern race for that very February card with the addition of the Listed Apple’s Jade Mares Novice Hurdle (won in 2024 by Brighterdaysahead).
The same fixture also plays host to the Grade 2 Ten Up Novice Chase, as well as a maiden hurdle and bumper that often throw up high-class sorts (Grade 1 winner Honesty Policy won the maiden hurdle last year, Helvic Dream did so a year earlier). With or without the Boyne, this is still a smart card.
As for Gowran, judged on the massive crowds we saw again at the track last week, moving the Galmoy would be highly unlikely to have any impact on numbers coming through the gate.
Yes, it would be nice to have another prominent race to stand alongside the Thyestes, but some of the recent renewals have had weak enough or small fields anyway (four, six, six and nine runners over the last four years). Willie Mullins has had no runner in two of those editions. Would he have been tempted to run a fit-and-ready Ballyburn in a three-mile Grade 1 (worth €120,000) at the DRF this weekend? Quite possibly.
Top guns waiting
At a press morning last week, Gordon Elliott - while stressing that it is not his job to make calls on race programming - indicated he’d be keen for a staying hurdle being introduced at the DRF when asked about the prospect. He felt a horse would be less likely to be bottomed out at Leopardstown in such an option, than on extremely heavy ground in a race like the Galmoy.
“Teahupoo goes straight to Cheltenham. If we had a three-mile option at the DRF, he might go there,” Elliott said of the Stayers’ Hurdle favourite.
On the 4/1 second-favourite for Cheltenham, Honesty Policy, Elliott noted: “If the ground isn’t bottomless, he’ll go for the Boyne. If the ground doesn’t suit, it’ll be straight to Cheltenham… If there was a race at the Dublin Racing Festival for him, I’d love to be going there.”
He added: “It’s not my job to answer questions on the race programming, and all the tracks have their own races, but I still do think there’s room for a three-mile Grade 1 at the DRF. If they’re talking about this being the best festival, why not have one there?”
Once the dust settles after weathering a literal storm this week, the conversation around a staying option could be one worth having. There are surely other solutions too, but it might well make an already epic weekend even stronger.