Killarney Races kick off with May festival

KILLARNEY Races kicks off its summer racing season on Sunday May 10th and offers three days of the very best of festival racing. Sunday and Monday are both national hunt cards whilst Tuesday is an all-flat card.

Sunday is Lá na gClub where seven local G.A.A. Clubs (Dr. Crokes, Legion, Gneeveguilla, Glenflesk, Milltown / Castlemaine, Glenbeigh / Glencar and Laune Rangers) take part in a free-taking competition during and after racing, competing to win a prize of €3,000 for their respective club.

Also on Sunday, Killarney Racecourse remembers Jeremy O Neill and raises funds for cancer research. The third race on Sunday will be called “The Jeremy O Neill Memorial Mares Hurdle” sponsored by the friends of Jeremy O Neill, while the last race on the day will be called “The Cancer Clinical Research Trust flat race”.

Professor Crown, founder of the Cancer Research Clinical Research Trust has devoted a lot of his time in researching and developing better and more effective treatments for cancer. He is also the founder of the Friends and Family of the Mr. O’Neill.

Sunday is also the day with an overall Irish theme and Celtic Steps The Show (who have recently located their show to Killarney Racecourse) will be performing throughout the day.

Manager of Killarney Racecourse, Micheál Lucey said, “We are looking forward to our opening day of the 2015 season and Sunday is an action-packed day which promises to be a great day out for all the family.”

The first race on Sunday the 10th May is at 2.20pm with the feature race of the day being The Grade B Ladbrokes.com Handicap Hurdle with a prize fund of €50,000.

Monday the 11th May is ‘Killarney National Night’ with the running of the ‘ Killarney National,’ generously sponsored by the McSweeney Arms Hotel. This race promises to be a great spectacle with all the usual thrills and spills of a national race and Killarney Racecourse is delighted to boast a €40,000 prize fund for the race. First Race is off at 5.05p.m.

Tuesday’s race card is a flat card and Killarney Racecourse is donating 50% of admissions / gate fees to ‘Kerry Cancer Support Group – Kerry / Cork Healthlink’.

Packages are still available on all three days for the hospitality suit. For bookings contact 064-6631125, or log on to: www.killarneyraces.ie.