LIMERICK Racecourse called on Liam Burke to help launch details of this year’s Christmas Festival. Liam famously became the oldest jockey to win a race in Ireland for over 100 years when, aged 66, he rode a winner at Limerick last March.

There will be over €600,000 in prize money to be won at Limerick this Christmas and there is an important change to the running order as the Grade 1 Guinness Faugheen Novice Chase has been moved from St Stephen’s Day to December 28th.

Racecourse manager Tom Rudd explained: “We always get a bumper crowd on the 26th anyway, so it made sense to move our only €100,000 race to another day where it might boost attendance.”

Once again the headline sponsor is Mr Binman and this year’s Festival also marks the commencement of Limerick Racecourse’s sustainability journey.

Measures being adopted, in conjunction with all its partners, include the avoidance of single-use plastics at the festival, the use of reusable plastic cups, QR codes on tickets linking to racecards to reduce paper waste, and public transport provided to and from the racecourse to reduce carbon emissions.

Sustainability measures already underway at Limerick include track irrigation using rainwater from the racecourse pond, recycling shavings and manure from the stables.

Web: limerickraces.ie