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Leopardstown Christmas Festival launched at Joseph O'Brien's yard

Joseph O'BrienJoseph O'Brien
© Photo Healy Racing

The launch of the 2019 Leopardstown Christmas Festival took place at Joseph O'Brien’s yard in Piltown on Monday morning where the Melbourne Cup, Breeders Cup and Cheltenham Festival winning trainer reported yesterday's big-race winners Fakir D'Oudairies and Cerberus to be fit and well and on target for their Christmas options.

Yesterday's Drinmore Chase winner Fakir D'Oudairies holds an entry for the 2m1f Grade 1 novice chase on St Stephen's Day while yesterday's Grade 2 winner Cerberus along with his stablemate and runner-up A Wave Of The Sea are both on target for the Grade 2 juvenile hurdle at the Dublin venue over Christmas. Both horses have come out of their races well, along with O'Brien's Eric Bloodaxe which brought up a treble for the trainer at Fairyhouse.

Speaking at the launch Joseph O'Brien commented:“The Leopardstown Christmas Festival is a highlight of the National Hunt racing calendar, it is a target for many of our horses and we look forward to supporting it.

“Every horse of mine that has run well for the past few weeks will head to Leopardstown this Christmas, it's hard to win there, but we will give it a go and will hopefully have a strong team representing us”

Vicki Donlon, speaking on behalf of Leopardstown Racecourse, said “we are delighted with the quality of entries once again for the Leopardstown Christmas Festival, we are grateful for the support of the owners and trainers from Ireland and the UK and look forward to an exciting four days of sporting action.

“The addition of international law firm, Matheson, to our valued existing partners of the Christmas Festival is fantastic and we look forward to enhancing our strong relationship with them.”