BY common consent, this year’s Punchestown Racing Festival was one of the best in living memory. The weather was brilliant, racing fantastic and the battle to the last for the trainers’ championship between Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott was the icing on the cake. Bringing over €70m to Kildare, the festival is obviously a major contributor to the local economy. While the weather may be an act of God, as for the rest, it is a result of planning, dedication and hard work by the dedicated team who keep the show on the road. The headline writers in the sporting and national press were at a loss to find adequate superlatives to describe the festival.

It wasn’t always thus. Not so long ago, Punchestown attracted headlines which made for difficult reading, court cases, disputes and financial crises appeared to be the order of the day. These disputes sucked the lifeblood and finances from Punchestown. For a while, it looked as if the grand old lady might be consigned to the breakers’ yard. This would not only have been an irrevocable loss to the world of National Hunt but also to rural life and folklore of Kildare.