Ballymore boost for Punchestown

Ballymore have announced their sponsorship of the inaugural fifth day of the Punchestown Festival.

The four-day meeting has been extended to include Saturday this year, with the two-and-a-half mile Ballymore 25th Anniversary Hurdle the feature event.

Worth a total of 220,000, it will be the most valuable handicap hurdle ever run in Britain and Ireland.

Ballymore, one of the one of the largest property development companies in Europe, is owned by locally-based Sean Mulryan and the firm are already the title sponsors of the third day of the Punchestown Festival.

Mulryan, who also owns a number of top-class runners including Forget The Past and In Compliance, said: “We hope the fifth day of the festival will be all about bringing glamour and family elements of the festival together for a thrilling finale to a superb week.

“I feel the Saturday at Punchestown will become a major event on the National Hunt racing calendar, in fact, I will make sure it does!”

David Mongey, chairman of Punchestown, added: “We are very appreciative of Sean and Ballymore’s continued support and his belief in Irish National Hunt racing.

“The Irish National Hunt Festival, now comprising of a 3million prize fund is not only vitally important to the National Hunt calendar but also the largest corporate hospitality event held in Ireland.

“Vibes regarding the five-day Festival are very positive with both ticket and corporate sales strong at this point.”

The Irish National Hunt Festival will take place from April 22-26.