NOW in his sixth year at the helm, Ian Stark has been busy tweaking and revamping the tracks. The courses for the feature classes will follow much the same route as last year, but delivering an early change, riders will encounter a corner on top of a mound, just before the first water.

Specifically built to slow riders down and to avoid what he describes as ‘steeplechase speed’, riders will then need to up the pace a little before they cross the steeplechase fence and on to the familiar rider-frightening corner over a gaping Meath ditch. The second water has also been re-jigged and will, according to Stark, “require quick reactions from both horse and rider.”