AFTER 90 years of waiting, Naas racecourse is shortly set to host its inaugural €80,000 Grade 1 race.

Naas racecourse manager, Tom Ryan, described it as the “beginning of a new era’’ for racing at the popular Kildare venue. The Grade 1 will be run on Sunday, January 4th next.

“After 90 years of waiting, we have got our first Grade 1 and very fittingly, it’s the Lawlors Hotel Novice Hurdle given their long and pivotal association with Naas racecourse. We have 34 entries and are absolutely delighted with that.

“Without doubt, this first Grade 1 for our track marks a new era for us and we will be building on this and going foreward, hopefully hosting more Grade 1s as well as building up our flat fixtures,’’ Tom Ryan told The Irish Field.

Top trainers Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Noel Meade and Nicky Henderson have been quick to enter up horses for the showpiece.

The unbeaten Free Expression will bypass the busy Christmas period and is among those entries at Naas in the new €80,000 Grade 1 Lawlors Hotel Novice Hurdle.

Gordon Elliott’s five-year-old has won on each of his four starts to date and was highly impressive when successful in a Grade 2 at Navan in November. Elliott said: “We will train him like a good horse and he has done everything that we have asked of him.”

Willie Mullins has entered 13 horses for the race including Nichols Canyon, winner of the Grade 1 Bar One Racing Royal Bond Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse; Cork’s Grade 3 Kerry Group Stayers Novice Hurdle winner, Black Hercules; Douvan, who impressed on his Irish debut at Gowran Park and Shaneshill, a top bumper performer of last season and so promising on his first run over hurdles at Fairyhouse.

Noel Meade has made four entries for the race and at this stage, the improving Couleur France could be best of his quartet. The locally-trained On Impulse was a good winner at Punchestown recently and could be an interesting runner for Ted Walsh and other notable entries include Sandra Hughes’ All Hell Let Loose and the Tom Mullins-trained Princely Conn.

Naas has also attracted an entry from leading English trainer Nicky Henderson who has put Vyta Du Roc in the race.

The five-year-old is unbeaten in four starts and was the winner of the Grade 2 Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle at Sandown last time out.