Wednesday 28th February 2024 – Punchestown racecourse are delighted to announce a new three-year sponsorship of the Grade 1 Boodles Champion Hurdle at the renowned Punchestown Festival, marking a significant partnership within the realm of Irish racing.
The feature race of Boodles Day, Friday 3rd May, is the prestigious Grade 1 €300,000 Boodles Champion Hurdle. The 2024 Boodles Champion Hurdle has the potential to be the race of the season should reigning champion hurdler, Constitution Hill make the journey across the sea to take on Irish favourite and current Punchestown festival Champion, State Man on home turf. The pair will hopefully meet once again at Cheltenham in less than two weeks should Constitution Hill return to full fitness ahead of the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.
The Punchestown Festival stands as a pinnacle event on the Irish sporting and social calendar, hailed for its five days of top-tier racing featuring the finest Irish and British talent. The sponsorship is perfectly timed with it being Boodles 20th year of having a presence on Grafton Street in Dublin. Boodles sponsorship of Irish racing is a natural extension into the heart of the sport, from its many ongoing sponsorships of British racing events such as the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Chester Races and York Races.
The partnership between Boodles and Punchestown is a three-year sponsorship and is fittingly timed as Boodles recently launched their first ever equine inspired jewellery collection ‘Lucky’, which will be on display throughout Punchestown Festival in the Boodles Bar. As the final event in the Irish jump racing calendar, Punchestown is widely acclaimed as the ultimate homecoming for champions, making it one of Boodles most exciting partnerships to date.
Our involvement with horse racing in the UK started all the way back in the 1930’s when we made the trophies for the Grand National at Aintree. We feel privileged to have been invited into the Irish racing world and to be sponsoring such a prominent race at Punchestown almost 100 years later. We are excited to think that ‘The Boodles Bar’, in the centre of the hospitality area, will have a great buzz about it throughout the festival. We are also delighted to continue our association with Rachael Blackmore who will be attending Boodles Punchestown Launch event in our Grafton Street Showroom.” James Amos, Managing Director of Boodles
Conor O’Neill, CEO of Punchestown, expressed his delight at the collaboration, emphasising the shared appreciation for heritage and brand integrity – “It goes without saying that we are so pleased to welcome Boodles to the Punchestown Festival. The Boodles Champion Hurdle is a fittingly prestigious race for a brand such as Boodles who are Britain’s leading fine jeweller since 1798. We often remark that it is the people that make Punchestown, so to partner with a family run, award winning luxury brand whose team truly appreciate the importance of heritage and brand values is a wonderful privilege”.
The Punchestown Festival takes place from Tuesday 30th April to Saturday 4th May. Boodles Day coincides with Ladies Day on Friday 3rd May. Punchestown will roll out a range of changes for the 2024 renewal including reduced ticket prices, refreshed layout features, earlier start times on the first two days and enhanced public amenities. For full range of tickets, hospitality and event details please visit www.punchestown.com
**ENDS**
About Boodles
Since 1798, Boodles has represented the epitome of fine British jewellery. Still a privately-owned family business, Boodles stands for the very best in creative design; the highest quality diamonds and gemstones; and the fusion of traditional craft skills with innovation. Every piece of Boodles jewellery is designed and hand finished in Britain. There is an emphasis at Boodles on provenance: taking pride in being able to trace diamonds all the way back to source, and on using gold of a Single Mine Origin. At once classic and contemporary – and always distinctive – Boodles is perhaps best known for Raindance; the iconic ring which was recognised by the V&A Museum and entered into its permanent collection. In 2023 – the year of its 225th anniversary – Boodles was named by the UK’s luxury sector body, Walpole, as Best British Luxury Brand of the Year.
Patrick Mullins looks ahead to some main contenders for the Punchestown Festival
**WATCH THE FULL CHAT HERE**
Sir Gerhard
Sir Gerhard is very versatile, he can go for either the Bective Stud Champion Novice Hurdle or the Alanna Homes Novice Hurdle as he has won Grade 1s over both trips. I suppose it will be a case of what way you split our three up with Dysart Dynamo and State Man there as well. We’ll have to see closer to the time what way Willie will split them up but Sir Gerhard came out of Cheltenham very, very good. He jumped much better there and we don’t know what got into him at Leopardstown at the Dublin Racing Festival – maybe he was just feeling something on the day. I thought his performance at Cheltenham could be marked up hugely on account of how keen he was early on. I think he is very versatile and will be very difficult to beat over either trip.
Dysart Dynamo
For me Punchestown really plays to Dysart Dynamo’s strengths. He has won there twice. He gave me a horrendous time last year – it was like wrestling a bear around! I think hurdles helps him concentrate a little bit and it should definitely do after Cheltenham but I think Punchestown is a track that suits his strong running style.
State Man
I’d be very disappointed if he’s not a Grade 1 winner in the future. He showed plenty of speed to win the County Hurdle and it’s just about splitting up the novice hurdlers. There is a fantastic crop there going forward for next year.
Chacun Pour Soi
He walked into the third fence (in the Champion Chase at Cheltenham) and then got back jumping. While watching the race you would say I was going well, and I probably was, I wasn’t surprised that he put down. I just didn’t feel that he was giving me the feel that I was expecting him to. I don’t feel he was on his ‘A game’ on the day. I’m just disappointed as he shouldn’t be making mistakes like that. It wasn’t the Chacun Pour Soi we know but look, I thought the William Hill Champion Chase at Punchestown was one of the races of the season last year. I thought Paul was excellent on him the way he bounced him out and that was a huge performance the way he got Allaho out of his comfort zone completely. He is 10 now and Energumene is in his prime at eight, so it’s probably going to be difficult for Chacun Pour Soi but I’d be expecting him to be much more like his old self next week and perhaps he might just be a better ground horse. It’ll be a fantastic race and I wouldn’t rule him out.
Energumene
In reality, the Champion Chase at Cheltenham turned into a Grade 2 but Engergumene travelled through the race like the good horse he is. We’ll take it, a Champion Chase, we never had one before but we will have to take on Shiskin again and settle it once and for all.
Allaho
His options are limited. We didn’t go to Aintree as he put in a huge performance at Cheltenham and we thought asking him to come back that quick would be tough. When we probably have two good horses in the two mile race, the Ladbrokes Gold Cup over three miles at Punchestown would look the obvious race for him to go to. It’s not like he doesn’t stay three-miles, he ran Minella Indo very close over an extended 3m1f on better ground. He is just probably at his optimum over two and a half miles but he is still a very good horse over three miles. I do think he is a better horse going left handed as he does adjust to his left but I wouldn’t be surprised if he could win a Punchestown Gold Cup.
Al Boum Photo
He ran all right at Cheltenham. I think it turned into a bit of a sprint which obviously suited A Plus Tard and it didn’t suit our fella – not that it would have made any difference. I think he ran quite well and he ran really well (at Punchestown) last year when he was second to Clan Des Obeaux. I just wouldn’t forget about him, he hasn’t suddenly become a second-class horse. He is still a very, very good horse and if Allaho does run he’d be a very nice spare ride to pick up!
Facile Vega
All our good horses go to Punchestown so this has been the plan. The Champion Bumper at Punchestown is worth more than the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham so it would be madness not to go for it. He has come out of the race bucking and squealing and David Porter is very happy with him. Better ground shouldn’t inconvenience him and obviously his dam (Quevega) used to go from Cheltenham to Punchestown so hopefully it won’t be any problem for him.
St James’s Gate
He ran a fabulous race in third at Cheltenham. He only came into the yard at Christmas and Tornado Flyer is the last horse that fitted that type of profile so he could still be improving.
Klassical Dream
We got the good start in Leopardstown and (at Cheltenham) Klassical started backing up backwards and Paul ended up jumping off last and we are 10 lengths behind Flooring Porter straight away so was that just the swing. I was a little bit disappointed with how weakly he finished. He travelled up there very well but I don’t think that was him at his best and I’d be disappointed if he couldn’t win next week at Punchestown.
Vauban
I’d imagine he will go here. The good ground will help and he is a horse with a lot of speed. It turned into a bit of a sprint in the Triumph Hurdle and that probably played to his strengths but for him to be able to miss the last and be able to pick up and run away from the other two, I think he is better than your average Triumph Hurdle winner. Hopefully he can back that up but I can’t see any reason why the track or the ground wouldn’t play to his strengths.
Gaelic Warrior
The ground on the first day at Cheltenham was proper good ground, quicker than it would normally be there and the Fred Winter was very unusual in that they went very slowly. We got beaten by a Galileo horse, a flat bred, in a sprint on good ground. He started to jump right, maybe just feeling the ground a little bit as he is a big jumping type horse and I think he is better than the bare form and he was probably unlucky on the day with circumstances. Is he going to beat Vauban? Maybe not, but he’s definitely one going forward for next year that we are very excited about.