Ballymore Celebrates 25th Anniversary At Punchestown Ballymore has placed the first ever running of a fifth day (Saturday) at the Irish National Hunt Festival firmly on the map by announcing their title sponsorship of the race day, which adds ?600,000 in prize fund value to the Irish National Hunt Festival. The Ballymore 25th Anniversary Hurdle, the feature race of day five of the Irish National Hunt Festival is worth ?220,000 making it the most valuable handicap hurdle ever run in Britain and Ireland. The race will take place on Saturday, April 26th and will be run over 2 miles 4 furlongs for horses rated 0 ? 145. The addition of a fifth day to the Irish National Hunt Festival brings the total festival prize fund to ?3 million. This years running of the Irish National Hunt Festival will be the twelfth festival, which Ballymore has been involved with Sean Mulryan who lives locally founded Ballymore and remains its owner. He started the sponsorship in the name of Ballymore Homes and since his first involvement with Punchestown, Ballymore has grown to be one of Ireland's greatest international success stories. As Ballymore grew into one of the largest property development companies in Europe, so too did its sponsorship at Punchestown. Ballymore became title sponsors of day three of the festival, which included sponsorship of the Champion Four Year Old Hurdle and the Champion Stayers Hurdle. Commenting on the new sponsorship, Ballymore Chairman and successful racehorse owner Sean Mulryan stated ?the Irish National Hunt Festival at Punchestown has been always been a favourite of mine from both a personal and corporate point of view. The opportunity to host the 25th Anniversary of Ballymore on its founding doorstep is a very exciting one. We hope that the fifth day of the festival will be all about bringing glamour and family elements of the festival together for a thrilling finale to a superb week. I feel the Saturday at Punchestown will become a major event on the National Hunt racing calendar ...in fact I will make sure it does!' Denis Brosnan, Chairman of Horse Racing Ireland is equally enthused about the new sponsorship announcement and stated: ?Ballymore's title sponsorship of the inaugural running of day five of the festival at Punchestown indicates a definite seal of approval to host the fifth day. Sean Mulryan has had tremendous success in the last year with his horses and both Sean and Ballymore have been staunch supporters of racing for many years.' Chairman of Punchestown Racecourse, David Mongey, also commented: ?We are very appreciative of Sean and Ballymore's continued support and his belief in Irish National Hunt racing. The Irish National Hunt Festival, now comprising of a ?3 million prize fund is not only vitally important to the National Hunt calendar but also the largest corporate hospitality event held in Ireland. Vibes regarding the five day festival are very positive with both ticket and corporate sales strong at this point. ' The Irish National Hunt Festival will take place from April 22nd to April 26th.
