Down Royal reveals WKD €50,000 big-race jackpot
A €50,000 prize fund has been confirmed for the Grade 2 Hurdle on day one of the Down Royal Festival of Racing set to take place on Friday and Saturday, November 1 and 2.
Sponsored once again by WKD, the Grade 2 Hurdle has attracted a wealth of talent to Down Royal over the years including top jockeys AP McCoy, Ruby Walsh and Sean Flanagan, with last year’s race won by Rachael Blackmore riding the Ian Jardine-trained Bedrock.
Emma Meehan, Chief Executive of Down Royal Racecourse, said: “Down Royal is now firmly on the map as one of Ireland’s premier sporting destinations and our first-class facilities, coupled with some of the most exhilarating horse racing in the country, sees thousands of seasoned and first time racegoers alike flock to the Festival.
“We are delighted to have WKD on board once again as Premium Sponsor of day one of the Festival and the Grade 2 WKD Hurdle, one of the highlights of the weekend and renowned for attracting top-class entries.
“We have a long-standing partnership with the brand and are particularly excited to welcome them back to Down Royal as they launch an exciting new flavour to the WKD stable.”
Brendan Loughran, Head of Business Unit Ireland, SHS Drinks, which owns the WKD brand, said: “WKD is delighted to be continuing its long and proud association with horse racing at Down Royal. The Festival of Racing is a highlight in the
Starter’s orders: Down Royal’s Emma Meehan and Brendan Loughran of sponsor WKD racing and social calendar and we’re thrilled that WKD, Premium Sponsor of the first day of the Festival, will be unveiling WKD Pink Gin Flavour to racing enthusiasts.
“WKD is an iconic brand, launched in 1996, and its innovative flavour and identity resonates with racegoers here. Over the two days of the Festival we will be sampling our brand new WKD Pink Gin Flavour and can’t wait for racegoers to be among the first to try it in Northern Ireland.”
WKD will also be raising the stakes over the Festival weekend by inviting racegoers to ‘Find Your #WKDside’ which will see the best look win an amazing trip for two to Ibiza.
Mr Loughran continued: “Combining the flavour of gin with all the simple approachability of WKD, the new spirit-inspired product has everything you’d expect from WKD: fun, personality and accessibility, and with a scorching stand-out colour, this hot pink drink is set to get the ‘best look’ winner ready for the prize trip to Ibiza.”
Gates open at 11am and the first race is at 12.45pm. General admission is £15 and tickets are available at the turnstiles on arrival. Children under 16 go free and free car parking is available. BELFAST Giants captain Matt Pelech believes their Champions League campaign has proven that they can play with Europe’s big boys — and now they need to translate that into results in the Elite League.
Despite finishing bottom of Group C with four points, the Giants did get a win over Czech side Bili Tygri Liberec, while they also took the Augsburger Panther to overtime in Belfast and ran them close in Germany.
Their European adventure ended on Tuesday night with a 4-0 defeat in Sweden against Lulea, but Pelech has challenged his team-mates to carry their compete level into domestic affairs.
“When we’ve shown we’re on our game, we can play with some really good competition in Europe. That’s something to be proud of,” says Pelech.
“Obviously we didn’t get the results we wanted but this is a tough tournament — the travel is difficult, the teams are hard.
“We can play. We went into Augsburg and played great. We beat Liberec at home. (Tuesday night) wasn’t great but we played (Lulea) harder at the SSE.
“When we’re rolling, we can hang in there with competition that’s maybe a little bit above our league. So we need to bring that Positive experience: Belfast Giants captain Matt Pelech
back into our domestic games.
“We need to play simpler like we play these teams because that’s when we’re good. We know we have the ability to be a really good team.”
With only the Elite League champions qualifying for the tournament, there’s no guarantee the Giants will be back in next season to contest it again, but head coach Adam Keefe is determined they will be.
“I thought it was pretty exciting, pretty cool. It’s something we can learn from. Organisationally, on the ice, the tempo of pace we need to play at,” said Keefe.
“There’s a lot of things we can take from this tournament. It’s certainly something we want to strive to get back to in future.”