WIN TICKETS TO LEOPARDSTOWN ON SATURDAY: 'Get someone to Champions weekend and racing has them for life' Enter Free Ticket CompetitionFormer Republic striker and Tonybet ambassador is looking forward to Ireland’s biggest weekend of Flat racing this weekend at Leopardstown and the Curragh. Tony Cascarino, a brand ambassador for Tonybet - sponsors of the Group 2 Solonaway Stakes on Day 1 of the Festival - believes Irish Champions Weekend is the sporting event every Irish fan should have in their diary. Cascarino, who earned 88 caps for the Republic of Ireland and will be at Leopardstown on Saturday 12th September to present the Group 2 Tonybet Solonaway Stakes trophy to winning connections, says the Champions Festival captures something unique about the Irish relationship with racing, a sport experienced as much socially as competitively. Tonybet ambassador Cascarino, said: "Nobody falls in love with racing on a wet weekday afternoon, It's the big days that get you - the crowd, the noise, the argument about the last race while the next one's going down to the start. Get someone to Leopardstown for a Champions weekend and racing has them for life. "A day at the races in Ireland is a day out first and a bet second. You have your few quid on, of course you do, but the bet is really your ticket into the conversation. I've been in dressing rooms all my career and I've never found anything quite like the atmosphere of an Irish racecourse on a big day. That's what the Champions Festival bottles." "All my life the big Irish sporting days felt like ours alone. Now you stand at Leopardstown and the money's arriving from everywhere — Tokyo, Sydney, who knows. And the fella beside you still reckons he knows more than the lot of them. That's racing for you. The whole world betting on our weekend, and Ireland certain it has the edge."
