The Irish Pony Club will join forces with The Curragh Racecourse on Sunday September 25th when the second Irish Pony Club Family Race Day takes place at the famous County Kildare venue. The top class program of racing features the Juddmonte Beresford Stakes (Group 2), CL Weld Park Stakes (Group 3) and Hackett’s Bookmakers Irish Cesarewitch
The objective of this exciting initiative will be not only for the Curragh to showcase horse racing to Pony Club members from all over Ireland, but most importantly for the Pony Club to celebrate the end of their busy summer season with a fun and exciting day for all the family to enjoy.
The Pony Club has enjoyed a long and successful association with Horse Racing with a number of high profile jockeys being Pony Club Members, These include Joseph O’Brien, the youngest jockey to ride an Irish Classic winner when landing the Abu Dhabi Irish 2000 Guineas this year, Katie Walsh, Nina Carberry, Charlie Swan, Barry Geraghty, Paul Carberry, Kate Harrington and John A. Berry, while leading trainer Aidan O’Brien was a member of the Wexford Hunt Branch. Leading former jockey and current Curragh based trainer Conor O’Dwyer is also another former Pony Club member
A packed program of entertainment during the afternoon will provide the Pony Club with the opportunity to highlight their various activities with presentations courtesy to some of their winning teams, including Horse Trials, Hunter Trials, Mounted Games, Minimus, Tetrathlon, Show Jumping and
Dressage taking place during the afternoon, while the winning National Musical Ride team will perform on the track between races. . There will be a national competition to have one of the races named after one of the Pony Club branches, while members will be selected to present Turn-out prizes for certain races on the day.
One of the most exciting aspects of the initiative is a Jockey Skills Training Course, which will take place at the world renowned Racing Academy and Centre of Education in Kildare Town for 10 Pony Club members aged between 13 and 15 years, will be selected following a stringent interview process. Members are asked to write a piece (300 words or less) stating why they should be chosen and send it to the Pony Club office by Fri. 29th July. 25 will be selected from applicants to take part in an interview, from which 10 will go to RACE on 23rd to 25th Sept.
The overall winner will receive one week of work experience with a leading trainer, together with private jockey coaching session with a RACE Instructor and €250 voucher from TRI Equestrian.
Evan Arkwright, Commercial Manager of the Curragh Racecourse commented, “Following the success of the first ever Pony Club race Day last year, we are delighted to be working with the Irish Pony Club again to create a really special day for Pony Club Members and their families with the ultimate objective to further develop a strong association between the Curragh and Pony Club members from all over Ireland”
All Pony Club Members will gain free admission to the races, while there will be special ticket offers to parent and family of pony club members which are available by contacting the racecourse
For Further Information, please contact:
Evan Arkwright, Commercial Manager The Curragh Racecourse
Mary Fitzpatrick, Irish Pony Club: 056 8832966