National Hunt season takes another step forward with return of Galvin

The burgeoning jumps campaign takes another step forward at Punchestown on Wednesday with Galvin’s return to action.

The horse that beat A Plus Tard in a Grade One at Leopardstown last Christmas, and subsequently finished fourth to that rival in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, lines up for the Grade Three Irish Daily Star Chase.

It is a race that in the past has proved a launch pad to future Gold Cup glory for both Don Cossack and War Of Attrition and often signals the re-emergence of top-quality winter talents. Gordon Elliott, in particular, has targeted it with seven victories in the last dozen years, including with Galvin in 2021.

He went on to finish runner-up to Frodon in the big Down Royal Grade One before memorably edging out A Plus Tard in the Savills. That prompted legitimate Gold Cup ambitions and Galvin ran an admirable fourth at Cheltenham before finishing sixth to Allaho back at the Punchestown festival.

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Such a standard of performance means he must concede at least 12lbs to a handful of rivals in order to emulate Don Cossack (2014-15) as a back-to-back winner.

The opposition includes two stable companions, Battleoverdoyen and Run Wild Fred, as well as another star performer in last Easter’s Irish Grand National hero, Lord Lariat.

Some decent novices are also set to line up for the Grade Three Buck House Novice Chase, while the highly touted bumper performer Marine Nationale makes his jumping debut in the opener.

Acceleration in the emergence of star names at this point of the season is at the heart of a re-jig to next year’s pre-Christmas National Hunt programme confirmed by Horse Racing Ireland when it unveiled its 2023 fixture list on Tuesday.

In line with a recent policy of concentrating big races into single dates, in 2023 there will be a pair of high-class weekends leading up to Fairyhouse’s winter Festival at the start of December.

The most significant step by HRI has been to move the Grade One John Durkan Chase forward to take place at Punchestown on November 26th, a day after the Grade One Morgiana Hurdle.

The weekend before (November 18th-19th) at Navan will see the For Auction, Lismullen and Monksfield Hurdles, as well as the Fortria Chase and the Troytown Chase, run over successive days.

It continues the trend of packing top races into single weekends, similar to the Dublin Racing Festival in February and Irish Champions Weekend.

HRI’s director of racing, Jason Morris, said provision for the series of two-day feature meetings next year was made for both programming and promotional benefits.

“The very popular Down Royal festival at the start of the month will be followed by two-day meetings at Navan, Punchestown, leading into the hugely successful Fairyhouse winter festival in early December.

“There was widespread industry consultation and support for these changes which will produce a series of high-profile, top-quality meetings at the start of the core jumps season,” Morris added.

The 2023 fixture list has the same number of meetings, 390, as this year. Three of those are ‘floating fixtures’ kept in reserve to be allocated at short notice when demand for opportunities to run is high.

There has been a cut from 15 to nine in the number of Saturdays with clashing afternoon meetings while the number of blank Sundays has been retained at six.

A concentration theme will also figure towards the end of the 2023 flat season. A new two-day fixture at Naas will take place on October 14th-15th with another two-day all-flat programme at Leopardstown the following weekend.

The flat season in 2023 will begin and end at the Curragh on March 25th and November 5th.

“Maintaining the competitiveness and quality of Irish racing is paramount as it underpins the racegoing experience, the value of our media rights and the appeal of our bloodstock to international markets,” added Morris.