18,000 enjoy glorious start to Punchestown
Dee Ahern and Mairead forristal at the opening day of the Punchestown Festival 2026 at the opening day of the Photos: Michael Chester
Almost 18,000 attendees enjoyed a glorious start to the opening leg of the five-day festival at Punchestown Racecourse today. The great and the good of National Hunt Racing from both sides of the Irish sea went head-to-head on the track, while social racegoers enjoyed the glorious sunshine and soaked up the electric atmosphere.
An exciting seven race card featuring no less than 3 grade ones and the first day of the Bollinger Best Dressed Competition, ensured the festival opener gave punters a great taste of what’s in store for the rest of the week at the County Kildare Venue.
Eachtotheirown did the business for Connell, O’Driscoll and Flanagan in the PRL Champion Novice Hurdle. The impressive winner benefited from a brilliant front-running ride by Seán Flanagan for Nurney based owner and trainer Barry Connell and co-owner Tim O’Driscoll.
Louisa Murphy from Tramore enjoyed a winning visit to the Punchestown Festival when she was chosen as the daily winner of the Bollinger Best Dressed Competition. Having really embraced the theme of the competition she rented her bag, got her dress on vinted and wore her favourite ‘go with everything gold heels’. Louisa awed the judges and attendees with her impeccable style and the story of the lengths she went to curate this look which included hunting down a headpiece all the way from Melbourne and her recent engagement too!
Attendance figure were slightly up on 2025 with 17,923 at Punchestown today in comparison with 17,842 on the corresponding day last year.
The first race tomorrow (Wednesday) goes to post at 2.30pm the feature being the Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup at 6.05pm.
For more information and updates on the Punchestown Festival visit www.punchestown.com.
