WITH one leg remaining in the Barney Curley Apprentice Series Race, it’s a three-way battle for the top prize between Nicola Burns, Patrick McGettigan and Sam Coen.

The final race takes place on Wednesday, October 1st at Bellewstown. The series covers eight racedays from April to October. It starts and ends at Bellewstown and takes in races at Roscommon, Gowran Park, Naas and Down Royal in between.

The top 10 finishers in each leg earn points, from 25 for the winner down to one point for 10th place.

Heading into the final day, Nicola Burns is on 88 points, but she could be caught by Patrick McGettigan (78) or Sam Coen (76).

The winner will receive a voucher of €2,000, with €250 for both second and third.

As part of the bursary, the overall winner will also receive 10 Equuip-funded hours with a jockey coach, one day of one-to-one tuition at RACE, high-performance analysis with Wayne Middleton and Gavin Egan, a RACE mobile unit training session, a sports psychology session with Dr Ciara Losty, and financial literacy coaching with Gateway Consultants.

The 2024 winner was Jack Cleary and, judging by how well his season is going, he made good use of the bursary.