AS the Galway races draw to a close, all eyes will turn to the famous field of dreams in Ballintaggart for the 2025 Dingle Racing Festival.

Next Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the class of 2025 will strut their stuff and battle all the way up the famous straight in a bid for festival glory.

Those who have graced the Dingle turf in years gone by are now some of the biggest names in flat and National Hunt racing at home and abroad. They include Jamie Spencer, Colin Keane, Darragh O’Keeffe, Oisin Murphy, Rossa Ryan, Dylan Browne McMonagle and the local hero Jack Kennedy to mention just seven.

How great it is to see recent graduates which include Paddy McGettigan, Darragh O’Sullivan, Sam Coen, Nicola Burns, Dylan O’Connor, Julian Pietropaolo, Adam Browne Souza, Jimmy Dalton, Orla Tynan and Adam Grant all now firmly established on the Irish flat circuit.

Racing on Friday night will feature the Derby Trial over two miles. On Saturday, it’s the Golden Mile and the Ladies Derby while the feature event of the weekend is Sunday’s Lee Strand Dingle Derby over two miles.

The season’s leading jockey Kian McNally will be hoping to land back-to-back Dingle Derbys with Verstappen for Kildare farrier Teddy Worrell. The 2023 winner Caro Quintero will be back again while the newcomers are headed by the impressive Tommy Tango, owned by Shane Crabbe.

Here’s wishing all the stars of the future every success from the 12hh pony jockeys right through to those in the senior ranks.