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Teahupoo’s bid to win the Bar 1 Betting Hatton’s Grace Hurdle for a fourth time is sure to be one of the main draws at Fairyhouse’s Winter Festival during the last weekend of November.
The Grade 1 hurdle over two and a half miles to take place on Sunday, November 29th will share top-billing with the Grade 1 Bar 1 Betting Drinmore Novice Chase and the preliminary entries for both races promise renewals of the highest quality.
Should Teahupoo prevail once again, he would join a very select group of horses to have won a Grade 1 contest four times, alongside celebrated names such as Hurricane Fly and Istabraq (Leopardstown Irish Champion Hurdle) and Florida Pearl (Leopardstown Irish Gold Cup).
Trainer Gordon Elliott will be hoping Teahupoo can join an elite band as the only four time winner of the Hatton’s Grace at Fairyhouse at the end of the month.
“He's the horse of a lifetime and turns up in those Grade 1s every season and wins a couple. He's another year older and there are a few sets of younger legs in the staying hurdle division, but he's hugely consistent and turns up every time,” he told the Racing Post recently.
Mullins entries
Last season’s pre-eminent hurdler Lossiemouth is part of a pair of entries for Champion Trainer Willie Mullins along with previous Fairyhouse winner, Jimmy Du Seuil.
Slade Steel, a Grade 2 winner for Henry de Bromhead at the Easter Festival at Fairyhouse earlier this year, is another notable entrant in a race that hurdling greats Honeysuckle and Apple’s Jade won on three occasions in the past decade.
This year’s edition has attracted 15 entries in total, nine of whom are Grade 1 winners, also including The New Lion, who could be a welcome first runner in Ireland for Dan Skelton since 2023.
Britain’s record-breaking champion jumps trainer has only had 13 runners on these shores to date. His sole winner, Value At Risk, was in a Grade 2 at Fairyhouse in March 2016.
Skelton has also entered both Talk To The Man and Captain Teague in the Bar 1 Betting Drinmore Novice Chase (two and a half miles.
This race has been a platform for some of the sport’s biggest names with Envoi Allen and I Am Maximus among its recent winners.
Good record
Gordon Elliott has won the race nine times since 2010 and appears intent on adding to the tally with half of 28 initial entries from his Cullentra base. Chanceawetmorning, a recent Grade 3 winner and Bowensonfire, successful in a Cheltenham novice last month, catch the eye among his number.
The Tote Galway Plate hero King Alexander could be among a strong delegation from Willie Mullins, who also has Guinness Kerry National winner Ballygunner Castle and Love Me Tender, owned by J.P. McManus, an easy winner of a Grade 3 at Cork last weekend.
The Winter Festival at Fairyhouse starts on Saturday, November 28 when the Grade 3 Mullinam Hurdle and Listed Easyfix Equine Handicap Chase will feature.
Programmed alongside the two Grade 1 races on Sunday will be the Grade 2 Bar 1 Betting Royal Bond Hurdle and the Bar 1 Betting Porterstown Handicap Chase.
John Sheridan, Fairyhouse General Manager, said: ’It’s wonderful to see such strong entries for the feature races headed by the history-seeking Teahupoo and what a feat it would be if he were to win a fourth Bar 1 Betting Hatton’s Grace Hurdle.
“They are sure to be two enthralling races and it’s really encouraging to see entries from the Dan Skelton team in both the Hatton’s Grace and Bar 1 Betting Drinmore Novice Chase.
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