Major New Sponsorship Confirmed For Punchestown Festival Dunboyne Castle Hotel and Spa is confirmed as the new sponsor of the Champion Stayers Hurdle at the Irish National Hunt Festival at Punchestown. The Grade 1 race worth ?200,000, will be called the Dunboyne Castle Hotel and Spa Champion Stayers Hurdle. The sponsor will also take over title sponsorship of the day and Thursday, April 26th will be called Dunboyne Castle Hotel and Spa Day. Many prolific hurdlers have won the Dunboyne Castle Hotel and Spa Champion Stayers Hurdle in recent years, namely Azian Maze, Rhinestone Cowboy and Holy Orders. Jonjo O'Neill, no stranger to the winners circle for this race, having trained Rhinestone Cowboy to win it two years ago stated 'It is great news that Dunboyne Castle Hotel and Spa have come on board to sponsor this race. It's a valuable one now and Black Jack Ketchum is a definite possibility to run in it. It would be very nice to win it again, having won it with Rhinestone Cowboy in 2005. Punchestown has been a lucky place for me and I am keen to bring a team over there.'Seamus Ross, Chief Executive of the Menolly Group, of which Dunboyne Castle Hotel and Spa is a new arm, has been an ardent supporter of and sponsor at Punchestown for many years. Delighted with the opportunity to enhance its sponsorship portfolio at Punchestown, Ross commented 'the Irish National Hunt Festival at Punchestown is one of the major annual sporting events in Ireland if not the largest and a sponsorship of this calibre rarely comes available. This is the ideal platform to promote this new and prestigious hotel. The Dunboyne Castle Hotel and Spa Champion Stayers Hurdle has been a very good race in the past and hopefully it will be equally as exciting this year.'Punchestown has secured several new sponsors for its 2007 festival and the prize fund has now reached a record ?2.5 million. Confirming this major sponsorship, Manager of Punchestown, Dick O?Sullivan commented 'We are thrilled to have Dunboyne Castle Hotel and Spa as title sponsors of Thursday, April 26th and also of the Champion Stayers Hurdle. Seamus Ross is a fantastic supporter of national hunt racing and it is fitting that the Menolly Group can use the Irish National Hunt Festival to promote the company. At this stage, the indications are that it will be another bumper festival with corporate sales and advance bookings well ahead of last year. We are on target to have 30,000 corporate hospitality clients at the festival over the four days and Friday, April 27th has completely sold out in all corporate areas. There is limited availability on the remaining three days. 2007 could be the best yet.'
