DRF - The parade ring was packed, and those outside began the roar of 'Go on Paul' and 'Go on Galopin' The Dublin Racing Festival 2026 is over and out, but it’s a different Dublin Racing Festival this year that will live long in the memory for all the right reasons, as the team at Leopardstown faced their most difficult challenge yet when they woke up on Tuesday morning to the result of some truly harsh Irish weather. Through social media, we saw videos of the racecourse completely flooded, and the job at hand for Paddy Graffin and his team at Leopardstown was extremely difficult. Newly appointed Leopardstown CEO Mark Clayton was looking forward to his first Dublin Racing Festival, and I don’t think he could have envisioned something like this happening. But the team at Leopardstown worked tremendously hard, and we got an update that night that the water had been cleared away and that they were confident of racing going ahead. But as always, Irish weather did its best to play its part, and we saw significant rainfall again on Thursday and Friday, which led to an inspection on Saturday morning. As the English crowds started to flock over and gear towards the Saturday kickoff of 1.15 pm for the Nathaniel Lacey, doubt soon crept into the minds of those who were thinking about racing going ahead that weekend. We woke up on Saturday morning to the news that Saturday had been postponed to Monday. This had been told to us the night before, as the contingency plan was in place to run it on Monday. So it was a case of: Saturday is gone, and what do we do now? It seemed that everyone went out in Dublin that evening and that day and had a great time talking to each other and meeting one another, which is the great part about the Dublin Racing Festival. You see all different types of racing fans - Irish fans, English fans - and everyone was delighted to see that people could meet. I think that will whet the appetite for the Dublin Racing Festival again next year. Dublin Racing Festival won the war Saturday was over, and we got the confirmation that Sunday's racing was going ahead. The atmosphere was tremendous around Leopardstown on the Sunday. Although people were maybe slightly hungover, we still had an attendance of over 17,000 people, which is truly incredible given that it was a Sunday meeting and there was so much in the air about the racing already. That just proves that although the weather may have won the battle, National Hunt racing in Ireland and the Dublin Racing Festival won the war. It was a truly brilliant day of racing, where we saw huge performances from the likes of Majborough and Talk The Talk, who looked tremendous horses going into the Cheltenham Festival. We saw Brighterdaysahead back to her very best in the Irish Champion Hurdle, lowering the colours of Lossiemouth while giving Gordon Elliott a huge Grade 1. Sean Bowen showed once again that he is a jockey who has it all with an action-packed effort on Backmeorsackme as Emmet Mullins could not leave the weekend without a winner for owner Paul Byrne. The up and comers We saw a mix of everything over the weekend. Michael Keneally rode the first winner of the day for Dennis Hogan, and we saw Martin Hassett and his team win the bumper with Moonverrin, which was absolutely fantastic. A thought also for the jockey on the second, Stephen Connor, aboard Royal Hillsborough, who held up his hands and admitted that he had made a mistake. No jockey ever goes out to do anything wrong, and it takes a man to come back in and admit if something didn’t go right - and that’s what he did. He has a huge future ahead, and that horse also has a great future ahead for the Crawford team. A real racing crowd We then moved into Monday, a bank holiday that we thought was going to be used for recovery - but no, we were back on the road to Leopardstown again. Although it was a slightly smaller crowd of 9,000 people, it was a real National Hunt crowd that came into Leopardstown on the bank holiday Monday. Once again, people may have been the result of a slight hangover, but happy spirits came through the gates. When a crowd is four or five deep before the first Grade 1 of the day, it shows you exactly the type of people that were there. Doctor Steinberg looked incredibly impressive when winning in commanding fashion, and he looked extremely special given all the things he did wrong in the race. He was exemplary in the way that he corrected things and finished so impressively. We then saw Romeo Coolio winning his third Grade 1 of the season, and it’s extremely impressive that it’s not even the 3rd of February, and a horse has already won three Grade 1s in one season. Hats off to the KTDA Racing team and Gordon Elliott for allowing us to see this horse in the Drinmore, the Racing Post Novice Chase, and the Goffs Irish Arkle. Philip Fenton’s star Saint Le Fort battled gamely to land the 3-mile handicap hurdle, much to the delight of jockey Niall Moore, who committed to making the weight to allow him ride the horse, and it worked out for them to record a memorable day. An atmosphere to savour We then got to the Irish Gold Cup, where Galopin Des Champs was looking to record a fourth consecutive victory in the race. Although the crowd was smaller, the parade ring was packed, and those outside began the roar of “Go on, Paul” and “Go on, Galopin” as the horse left the parade ring. That showed the true want and desire people had for him to go on and make history. As they went off, the roars were loud and even when they passed us the first time, the cries for Galopin Des Champs to make history rang out from those in the stands. We saw a new champion in Fact To File, and although the crowd may have been dampened, the appreciation for all the horses who ran their hearts out as they returned was another special memory. A quick mention to Mark Walsh, who ended the two-day festival with 4 Grade 1 winners and landed the Irish Gold Cup, A tremendous jockey Cheltenham conversations sparked into action This was definitely a Dublin Racing Festival to remember for all the results that happened, and once again, it’s a great indication of form going into the Cheltenham Festival. It tells us where horses are, what chances they may have, and it starts the conversation about Cheltenham - where horses will go, whether they lost on merit, or whether they could improve. These are all the questions that people involved in racing love to talk about year on year. I believe thoroughly that this Dublin Racing Festival will be remembered for all the right reasons, because on Tuesday morning, when we all woke up and looked at our phones, we thought there was no chance of this festival going ahead. In reality, if this had been another racecourse, it wouldn’t have gone ahead. Once again, kudos to the Leopardstown team, to HRI, and to Punchestown Racecourse, who swapped their Monday fixture to Wednesday in order to accommodate the racing. This shows just how valuable Punchestown is to Irish racing. While already concentrating on their Punchestown Festival, they were still good enough to work with HRI and Leopardstown to allow this racing to go ahead. That’s a significant show of the team they have there and the sheer camaraderie that exists within Irish racing. The weather won the battle, but it was National Hunt Racing and the fine efforts of all involved with Leopardstown Racecourse and the HRI that helped to keep the show on the road for such a crucial fixture in the Irish and English Calendar. Mark Clayton praises the staff It was brilliant to gather the thoughts of Mark Clayton of Leopardstown Racecourse after the last race on Monday, and I popped the question to him of giving me his thoughts on the last week since Tuesday. Mark Clayton - Leopardstown CEO "Yeah, the last week has been absolutely a mega challenge for everybody here, and I have got to thank all the staff hugely. I haven’t been here that long, but I got to know the staff very well, very quickly, because we’ve got so much pressure, and they’ve responded with so much expertise and so much knowledge to be able to deliver this event. "You know, it was a real challenge, and at one point, I was really concerned that we wouldn’t be able to deliver both days. So to get to Saturday was quite an achievement from the ground staff because, to be honest, without their efforts, we might not have even got to Saturday itself. "I thought the story this week would be us selling out for the first time. The Dublin Racing Festival, we had never sold out on a race day before and we actually did sell out on the Saturday, before Saturday, on the Thursday morning. So that was a great success story, but then, you know, calling it off on the Saturday morning was really disappointing for everybody here. "But the work that we put in on the Friday, and being able to transfer to the Monday, you know, is quite something in Irish racing. I’m not used to that, so it’s a breath of fresh air. We had some quality racing. From Brighterdaysahead being able to turn over the form of Christmas, and now we have the first or second favourite for the Champion and the Gold Cup. We didn’t quite have the fairy tale that we wanted with Galopin winning for the fourth time, but, you know, to see Fact To File come through and do that was extremely impressive. "There was a real atmosphere today. And that’s what we wanted. We didn’t want a COVID atmosphere. You know, we really wanted to get the atmosphere through, and we succeeded in doing that. I’m very proud of everybody and the efforts they made to get us to that point. "The crowd was great today, I went out onto the front of the grandstand for the Gold Cup. I purposely wanted to be there for the Irish Gold Cup here. The roar as they went off was Cheltenham Festival-esque as they came around for a circuit, the roar again. And then there’s a little roar too as Galopin almost got to the front, yeah, about two or three out. It wasn’t quite to be, but, you know, fair play to everybody - everybody in the industry, all the supporters we’ve had, the sponsors we’ve had. "What we wanted to do was have clear, confident, and accurate communication throughout. That’s really important to keep everybody up to speed with what’s happening. You know, we’ve been through this week; it’s become a real national story. We wanted to make sure that everybody was kept up to speed with what we were going through. The Dublin Racing Festival is going from strength to strength. We want to keep it going in the right direction, and therefore, we wanted to make sure we did it right this year."
