Plenty for everyone at Fairyhouse Easter Festival

In his first year as Fairyhouse racecourse general manager, John Sheridan is currently getting the final preparations underway for a massive weekend in the racing calendar, the Easter Festival.

There is plenty of cracking action across the three days. On Easter Saturday, ladies day, the valuable Rybo handicap hurdle is the feature race. On Easter Sunday, the Gold Cup, previously won in recent years by the likes of Al Boum Photo, Galopin Des Champs and Spillane’s Tower, will take centre stage. Then all attention on Easter Monday will turn to the 2026 renewal of the Irish Grand National.

Sheridan is looking forward to the top-class racing that will be on offer across the weekend.

“It will be three days of really good racing which starts on Easter Saturday with the €100,000 handicap hurdle. On Sunday, we have the Grade One Honeysuckle mares novice hurdle and the Grade One Gold Cup. Of course, the feature race on Easter Monday is the Irish Grand National. I can’t wait for those from a racing perspective. There will be top-quality racing across the three cards.”

There will be plenty of amenities and entertainment off the track as well to keep punters and racegoers alike entertained throughout and after racing. A fantastic new addition this year is the free shuttle bus services that will run to carry patrons from the local areas to and from the races.

“Off the track, we will have a huge amount of entertainment. A lot of the bands and the acts that we have are local. Our main festival marquee is open all three days and there will be bands playing throughout the racing and then there will be a main act after racing. There will also be great entertainment for kids and families which is obviously hugely important for getting them interested at a young age,” said Sheridan.

“We will have free shuttle buses every day to and from racing. One starts from Ashbourne and then goes into Ratoath. Dunboyne and Dunshaughlin are covered from the other side with another one. On Easter Monday, we will have one bus in each of the towns. The details of that are on our website.”

The scenes after both of Dermot McLoughlin’s Irish Grand National triumphs in 2021 and 2022 were something to behold. There is something quite special about a local winner of the Irish Grand National. One local horse to keep an eye on for this year is Folly Master. Owned locally, Folly Master is trained by a man whose lineage was notorious for success in the race

“Local horses do have great success in the race. Tom Dreaper trains Folly Master for Declan and Elaine O’Farrell and if he was to win, Tom would be the third generation of Dreaper’s to win the race. The Dreaper’s connection to here is fantastic so it would be amazing to see Folly Master run well. We should have a really strong Irish Grand National this year. There are eight travelling over from the UK and The Jukebox Kid from Ben Pauling’s yard is one that everyone probably needs to take note of. He could potentially be very well handicapped for it.”

Sheridan has been pleased with how ticket sales overall have gone in the lead up to the festival.

“Ticket sales overall have been really strong. Because Easter falls differently every year, you need to take a different strategy each year. Hospitality sales have been really strong and the main restaurant, the Bobbyjo is pretty much sold out. The majority of the corporate rooms have been taken for the whole weekend as well. It is really positive from that perspective and our sales have been really strong. Some of the bundle packages are going well as well so very strong overall on the tickets front.”

One storyline that will be further developed at Fairyhouse is the trainers' championship battle between Gordon Elliott and Willie Mullins.

“The continued battle for the trainers' championship will be a fascinating added story to the weekend. Gordon (Elliott) is in front at the moment and there is a lot of room for optimism on his side, probably more so than what he is letting on. Willie (Mullins) is a powerhouse and he is a fantastic man for Gordon to be chasing after. It is an unbelievable standard to be setting and hopefully we will see plenty of runners from the two of them over the weekend.” concluded Sheridan.

Elliott himself is looking forward to having plenty of runners at the Easter Festival. The Summerhill man discussed the importance of managing runners at the big festivals and placing horses correctly for the big spring meetings.

“There is a lot of prize money up for grabs at Fairyhouse. The Irish Grand National is one of the biggest handicaps of the year. We have horses in a lot of races but you have to manage it well and split everything up. Aintree is coming up quickly, and you have Punchestown after that as well.”

Bective Stud-owned Better Days Ahead has been targeting the Irish Grand National all year and Elliott is hopeful of a big run if the ground is on the softer side. If the ground is a bit quicker, Elliott gives Search for Glory a good chance in the race.

“This has been the plan for Better Days Ahead all year and he has been in very good form. I would love to see the ground stay on the softer side. The evenings are getting longer and the weather looks to be decent but I’m sure even if that is the case, Brian Fitzpatrick (Clerk of the course) and his staff will water it and keep it in a safe condition for National Hunt horses. Our lad would definitely want it on the softer side,” said Elliott.

“Search for Glory is probably on the other end of the scale. I think the better the ground, the better horse he is. For a big horse he can’t really handle soft ground but he is going to be the right end of the handicap hopefully”.

Elliott is wary of the English raiders who he thinks may scurpper his plans to capture a second Irish Grand National.

“I think the English horses are going to be very dangerous. If you watch their record over the last year in Ireland. You also saw how well handicapped they looked in Cheltenham so they are going to be dangerous this year.”

The Longwood-based trainer concluded by given his thoughts on his chances of dethroning Willie Mullins as champion trainer, which he says is not very likely.

“It would be lovely to do it but I don’t think I have any chance at all to be honest. I have been lucky enough to be second to Willie for the last 13 years. I think I would need win and be second in the Irish National and for Willie to not have any near the finish to have a squeak and I can’t see that happening.”

Despite Elliott’s pessimism, plenty of racing pundits still give him a good chance of capturing his first ever Irish National Hunt Trainers title. One thing is for sure though, the Easter Festival, which runs at Fairyhouse between 4th and 6th April, will have a big say in the destination of said title.