YOU can’t get more Irish than horse racing and people’s love of Christmas jumpers and Fairyhouse is combining the two again at their Winter Festival this year for a fun fashion event with tweeds being discarded for multicoloured and sometimes dodgy looking hand-me-down recycled woollen knits.

Last year saw a huge number of entries to the inaugural Christmas jumper competition and Fairyhouse expects to see even more entries next Saturday, November 30th. And if you make an effort you can win the impressive prize of VIP hospitality package for two to the opening day of the Fairyhouse 2020 Easter Festival with a luxury overnight in the Dunboyne Castle Hotel.

One in four of the Christmas jumpers bought by under 35s every year are binned or unlikely to be worn again, so to spur change against this, Fairyhouse is encouraging all participants to take the following steps to get judging bonus points: find a vintage style online or a pre-loved jumper in your grandparents’ wardrobe, invest in a second-hand festive sweater, re-use your favourite from last year or swap them between friends or get creative and decorate your own 100% Irish woollen knit!

The Winter Racing Festival at Fairyhouse is expected to attract 9,000 racegoers next Saturday and Sunday and the vintage and glittery festive jumpers will be judged by Ireland’s great female jockey Rachael Blackmore.

Visit fairyhouse.ie.

THE Irish Field Directory 2020 went to press this week and will be free with the paper on Saturday, December 14th. The Directory remains more popular than ever with advertisers and we are very grateful to all the studs and organisations for updating their details so that the Directory is up to date.

Heavenly tip

BACK whatever Gordon Elliott runs in the bumper at Fairyhouse next Saturday. The race is named after his late uncle, Willie, who will be putting in a good word upstairs for his nephew’s selected.