Four days of the cream of Irish jump racing, with almost £1 million in prize-money up for grabs, and all of it ending on Saturday with the appearance of Champion Hurdler Istabraq.

It doesn't get much better than this.

It adds up to a Christmas bonanza for punters, many of them of the once-a-year variety, who will flock to Leopardstown in their thousands.

The St Stephen's Day ritual is expected to attract 16,000 people to the Co Dublin track but it will be Istabraq who again grabs the most holiday attention.

"The last day used to be a wind down but since Istabraq has come on the scene we keep getting inquiries about when he will be here and the crowd figures have shot up," the Leopardstown racing manager, Tom Burke, said yesterday.

Istabraq goes in the December Festival Hurdle, the race in which he fell at the last flight last year. But other stars strutting their stuff at Foxrock include Limestone Lad in Friday's Christmas Hurdle and Sackville in the Ericsson Chase on the same day.

Both Down Royal and Limerick host St Stephen's Day racing also with the latter track, the first new racecourse in Ireland for 50 years, expecting a crowd of 13,000 plus.

"We should have no problem with the weather," reported the Limerick manager Angus Houston and it was a similar story from the north, despite yesterday's intended racing at Thurles having to be abandoned after overnight temperatures reached minus five.

There were no plans for an inspection of Leopardstown yesterday but Burke admitted the forecast is uncertain for the three days after Stephen's Day.

"Frost should not be a problem on the first day. There are small fields and it will be totally fresh ground. After that we will take it as it comes. The forecast is for things to get colder but the forecast is constantly changing," he said.

Despite that two horses will be sent to Leopardstown from Ferdy Murphy's yard in Britain.

Paris Pike is set to take on Sackville in the Ericsson and Granit d'Estruval is scheduled to run in Thursday's Paddy Power Handicap Chase, the richest race of the meeting.