Paddy Power Cheltenham Trial Day At Naas As Naas Racecourse warms up for its biggest day of the year, entries for the last trial day before Cheltenham are exceptionally strong. The Anglo Irish Bank Nas Na Riogh Novice Chase is the first of three Grade 2 races on the card with leading novice Schindlers Hunt entered, along with Mister Top Notch, Patsy Hall and Chelsea Harbour. The Grade 2 paddypower.com Johnstown Novice Hurdle sees course and distance winner Kazal entered. After his win in the Grade 2 Slaney Hurdle at Naas in January, he went on to win the graded novice hurdle on AIG day at Leopardstown. Eoin Griffin's soft ground specialist is joined by three of Noel Meade's decent novices: Bridge Run, Offaly and the French-bred Cleni Boy, while Oliver McKiernan's Out in Front seeks to complete three wins in a row. The feature race of the day, the paddypowerpoker.com Newlands Chase of ?60,000, has a small but select entry. Nickname, currently 7-1 with Paddy Power for the Queen Mother Champion Chase, is joined by a back-to-form Watson Lake. Tom Taaffe's Tumbling Dice and Jessie Harrington's consistent mare Gemini Lucy are other interesting entries. The concluding paddypower.com bumper should also turn into a fascinating contest. With Paddy Power offering a Stg#28,000 bonus for the winner if it is also successful at Cheltenham in the Champion Bumper. This race has produced Cheltenham Bumper winners Pizarro and Hairy Molly in recent year and this year's entries include four previous winners including Willie Mullins' Arbor Supreme and Mags Mullins' The Gallop Master. Tom Ryan, manager at Naas Racecourse said: 'We are delighted to welcome Paddy Power Bookmakers on board as our main sponsor and the atmosphere on the day should be electric with a number of genuine Festival hopefuls entered. Sunday promises to be a brilliant day's racing with a total prize fund of ?224,000. We've already had a good number of English and Irish rugby fans pre-booking tickets for this meeting which takes place the day after the big match in Croke Park'. During racing, there will be parade ring interviews with jockeys and trainers about their Cheltenham hopefuls and Paddy Power will mark the card for the day and give some horses to watch out for in Cheltenham. The going at Naas is currently soft, with rain forecast for Wednesday, the rest of the week is to be mixed with showers and sunny spells. Extra fresh ground has been saved on both the chase and the hurdle track for Sunday. The first race on Sunday is at 2.10pm. Admission will be ?15 and ?7 for OAPs and students. Children under 14 are admitted FREE.
