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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.

 

Anglesey Lodge Give Back With New Punchestown Sponsorship

 

Monday 09/09/2022 – Internationally renowned equine hospital Anglesey Lodge will join the sponsorship line up for Punchestown’s season return meeting this Tuesday, September 13th when the Anglesey Lodge Equine Hospital Two-Year-Old Maiden will be the second race on the card at the Kildare track.

Punchestown completes the thoroughbred county hat trick as Anglesey Lodge are already involved with both the Curragh and Naas racecourses. Practice partner Mark MacRedmond (MVB CertVPM MRCVS) explained the thinking behind the contribution: “Our reason to be involved is pretty straight forward – we simply want to give back to the industry. Anglesey Lodge has been fortunate enough to work alongside so many brilliant training establishments from yards big and small throughout the region for over 45 years. Sponsoring and contributing to the prize funds is the most effective and direct way we can further support the industry and give back. MacRedmond continued “Another particularly important factor is of course was the passion that practise founder and renowned vet Ned Gowing had for Punchestown. Ned Gowing established Anglesey Lodge back in 1976 and throughout his distinguished career he would always make time for racecourse duty at Punchestown, a place he just loved”.

 In addition, the Anglesey Lodge team celebrate one year at their new Friarstown base having moved from their former facility of 19 years which was located next door to the final straight of the Curragh racecourse. The new Anglesey Lodge home is a custom built facility on 12.5 acres with state of the art facilities including 70 stables, double surgical theatres, blood sample laboratory,  diagnostic and examination rooms. A panel of 18 vets, specialist surgeons, nurses, nursing assistants,  grooms, lab technicians, practise managers and admin staff combine to make up what has become one of the most highly regarded teams in the global equine hospital industry. Anglesey Lodge Equine Hospital offers a full service from specialist surgery, lameness and pre-purchase exams to advanced nuclear scintigraphy.

 Welcoming the new sponsors to the home of Irish jump racing Punchestown CEO Conor O’Neill said “We are fortunate to have the fantastic people resources of Anglesey Lodge available to us on race days as part of the vet support panel. Horse welfare and safety is paramount at Punchestown and to have such strength and depth of veterinary experience on our doorstep means horses that compete here have the very best of assistance should they require it. We take this opportunity to thank Mark, Thomas, Juan and the team for their contribution to our first meeting of the 22/23 season and look forward to continuing our association with Anglesey Lodge  for many years to come”.

 The Anglesey Lodge Equine Hospital Two Year Old Maiden is the second race on the only all flat fixture at Punchestown. Action gets underway at 2pm.