Navan Racing Festival expected to draw huge crowds

HORSE RACING Noel Moran excited to see his charges in action

Last Thursday, Navan Racecourse launched their upcoming November Festival with a breakfast and a panel discussion in the Newgrange Hotel, writes Tom Gannon.

The event was well attended and was hosted by the Racing Post’s David Jennings. There were several speakers, including Ciaran Flynn, who was appointed as Navan Racecourse General Manager last year, Bective Stud owner Noel Moran, legendary jockey Barry Geraghty, We Are Meath’s Davy Rispin, HRI's Heather Downey, Ashley Brennan from the Cusack Hotel Group and John Lynch of Kilberry Pub and Restaurant.

Flynn was first up and he spoke about the warm welcome that you get at Navan Racecourse and the local atmosphere that they are trying to create.

“For me, being from Meath and someone who frequented the racecourse down through the years, you get a very warm welcome at the track," said the General Manager.

"The racing is top quality. The food and the hospitality are great. We even have a fireplace in the Troytown bar. In the middle of November, it is nice to get in and stand in front of the fire as well. There is a real local feel to it. When you come to the festival, you meet people that you've met there the year before and that is what we are trying to create.

"We want it to be a real family racecourse where people can come and enjoy themselves and have a great day out. The main show is the racing but it’s everything that goes along with it that makes it good for the locals.”

Flynn went on to praise some of those local trainers and owners who support the track and one man he mentioned was Bective Stud’s Noel Moran. Moran is a huge supporter of the track and he spoke about the highlight of his 2024 Navan Racing Festival, Found A Fifty, who won the Fortria Chase.

“We love to support it, it’s our local race track, we will always target it. We had a fantastic year last year. We will probably go back again this year with Found a Fifty and let him defend his Fortria crown. It will be a good race between him and Marine Nationale if the two of them do turn up. He always seems to run well at the start of the season and fades out in the finish where as Marine Nationale seems to be the opposite,” said Moran.

Jennings then asked Moran to pick out three horses that he is looking forward to see run in the 2025/26 NH season.

“The Yellow Clay has been a fantastic horse for us. We will probably stay hurdling with him. The race he ran in Cheltenham was probably the best race at the festival. It took a million-pound horse (The New Lion) to beat us by a head. He’ll probably go over a longer distance, might take the step up to three miles. We bought a nice flat horse there called Wackestone. I'll be looking forward to seeing him run. The other one I’m looking forward to is a four-year-old out of Apples Jade.”

Legendary retired jockey Geraghty had many great days at Navan over the years and he had high praise for the track itself.

“There is no doubt that Navan is one of the best tracks in Ireland or England and there is a reason why you get some of the best horses going to Navan," said Geraghty.

"It’s a proper test and the best horse usually wins because there is no hiding place. When you are going down the back straight in Navan, if you have a horse that can jump well, you can create lengths at that point of the race.

"You are a long way from home but you can get horses under pressure with jumping. As a jockey, it’s a dream to ride a good horse around Navan.”

Popular Meath GAA Podcast We Are Meath has recently struck up a sponsorship deal with the track and presenter, Davy Rispin, spoke about the connection between GAA and racing as well as the relationship between the track and local clubs.

“There is a great link between GAA and racing. This is a racing event here today and most people in the room here are probably involved with GAA clubs and in a similar sense that a lot of towns are backboned by horse racing people.” said Rispin.

“The social days that clubs do at races are brilliant. When the Navan Racing Festival comes around, the club season will be done so it’s ideal for clubs to have their end of season day out there.

"We were there last year with Cortown. Skryne and Gaeil Colmcille have done racedays there as well. We landed out with about 30 or 40 people, we had an area reserved in the Troytown Bar. It was brilliant.”

The Navan Racing Festival will take place on November 15th/16th.