Five of Ireland’s leading bookmakers will join forces on Sunday evening to raise money for the Irish Motor Neuron Disease Association by taking part in a tipster challenge in the Naas Court Hotel at 8pm ahead of this year’s Punchestown Festival.

As part of the 2010 Miss Punchestown fundraiser, which kicks off this year’s Punchestown Festival, Paddy Power, Boylesports, Ladbrokes Ireland, Chronicle Bookmakers and Sportingbet will be taking part.

And the interesting part of the tipster challenge is that whichever bookmaker finishes last of the five will have to fork out the €1,000 entry fee of his rivals, making it €5,000 in total.

Representing the five bookmakers on the night will be Paddy Power of Paddy Power Bookmakers, Leon Blanche of Boylesports, Darragh Fitzpatrick of Ladbrokes Ireland, Justin Carthy of Chronicle Bookmakers and trainer Paul Nolan will be representing, Sportingbet.

And with none of the five bookies allowed to pick any of the same horses, their racing knowledge will very much be put to the test on the night. Each bookmaker will have turns to make their selection first and the eight chosen races will be the Evening Herald Champion Novice Hurdle, the Boylesports.com Champion Chase, the Punchestown Guinness Gold Cup, the Paddy Power Champion Bumper, the Ladbrokes.com World Series Hurdle, the Rabobank Champion Hurdle, the Cathal Ryan Memorial Champion Novice Hurdle and the Airshow 100 Champion Four-Year-Old Hurdle.

Speaking at the launch of this year’s Punchestown festival Leon Blanche of Boylesports said, “Paddy may cough up now because it’s quite clear he’s going to come last!”

And if that’s not enough, the same five bookmakers’ representatives will be sporting their company’s colours in the newest race at this year’s Punchestown Festival. Shortly after the last of the horse races on Friday, the same five will be taking part in a charity race, on foot but in different costumes, in another ‘loser pays all’ ultimatum. Again, whichever of the bookmakers finishes last of the five will have to cough up €4,000 for the IMNDA.

“It’s worth the money just to see Leon wear a superman costume and Darragh dress up as Santa Clause.” said Justin Carthy of Chronicle Bookmakers.

Paddy Power was keeping his cards much closer to his chest ahead of these two big upcoming events. “All I’ll say is that I’m well used to these sorts of gigs so you could say that I’m a professional at this stage!”

Joining the five bookmakers in Friday’s charity race will be journalist Eugene McGrath from the Irish Sun and the Irish Times’ Barry O’Halloran and like the five bookies, both are keen to raise the awareness of Motor Neuron as well as raising as much money for the charity.

Motor Neuron is a disease which is rapidly increasing nationwide and with former Boylesports employee Paul Magee having died from the disease in 2008 and Michael Fitzpatrick, father of Darragh Fitzpatrick, only recently diagnosed with Motor Neuron, each of the five bookmaking firms are keen to support the Irish Motor Neuron Disease Association.

To find out more about the Irish Motor Neuron Disease Association or to make a donation, please visit www.imnda.ie.