Punchestown named Track of the Year at HRI Awards

Punchestown Racecourse was named the Racecourse of the Year Award at the annual Horse Racing Ireland Awards 2025 in Dublin on Monday evening.

The popular track, which hosts one of Irish horse racing’s biggest festival at the end every jumps season lifted the title after a public vote, votes from each of Ireland’s 26 racecourses and a select Horse Racing Ireland committee with a focus on sustainability.

Elsewhere, it was a remarkable night for the Mullins family, Willie’s son Patrick, the perennial champion amateur rider, accepted the National Hunt Achievement Award in recognition of his Aintree Grand National victory on Nick Rockett.

The Horse of the Year Award resulted in a tie between reigning champion Galopin Des Champs and Ethical Diamond who won the Breeders’ Cup Turf as an outsider in California last month. Both horses are stabled with Willie Mullins, capping another extraordinary year for the County Carlow trainer who also triumphed in the National Hunt category.

This was the second time that Horse of the Year went to dual winners following the 2015 tie between Faugheen and Don Cossack.

Rachael Blackmore, who retired from a glittering career in the saddle in May, received the Contribution to the Industry Award The most recent three recipients of the prestigious title have been the late owner-breeder HH the Aga Khan, trainer Jessica Harrington and multiple champion owner-breeder JP McManus.

“It is hard to think of someone who made such a profound impact on the sport so quickly,” said Suzanne Eade, HRI’s Chief Executive Officer, before handing the Tipperary-born former rider Blackmore her trophy.

“A total of 33 Grade 1s throughout her stellar career and 18 winners at the Cheltenham Festival, including the pinnacle, the Gold Cup, along with Champion Hurdles and a Champion Chase. Most famous of them all, the Grand National at Aintree. Many of those moments arrived during Covid and helped brighten the mood of the nation. They also caught the imagination as Rachael remains a role model, a true trailblazer.” Ireland’s newest champion jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle from Donegal swept the Flat Award, while trainer Joe Murphy, based in Tipperary, was a popular recipient of the Flat Achievement Award in the wake of Cercene’s stirring Group 1 Coronation Stakes victory at Royal Ascot.

The Emerging Talent Award went the way of 17-year-old Nicola Burns from County Westmeath who has ridden over 30 winners since first breaking onto the scene just over a year ago.

Tipperary trainer Sam Curling scooped the Point-to-Point Award in acknowledgement of Wonderwall’s success in the St James’s Place Festival Hunter Chase at Cheltenham, along with his biggest win tally yet at home.

Finally, on an occasion when his late brother Michael was honoured, amateur jockey Alan O’Sullivan from County Cork picked up the prestigious Ride of the Year Award for they way he partnered Filey Bay to a memorable victory in the Connacht Hotel (QR) Handicap at Galway. A public vote determined this category.