More than 60,000 punters are expected to flock to Leopardstown over the next few days for one of the eagerly anticipated weeks in the racing calendar.
St Stephen’s Day is traditionally one of the biggest betting days of the sporting year.
Up to €50million will be wagered by the weekend, with approximately €25million set to be spent today — with a full list of Premiership fixtures also taking place.
All eyes will be on the mouth-watering battle between Joseph O’Brien’s Fakir d’Oudairies and Willie Mullins’s wondermare Laurina in the feature race at the Foxrock venue.
But it’s not only on Dublin’s southside where some top class racing action takes place today.
The crowds will also be flocking to Limerick racecourse where Willie’s veteran crowd favourite Faugheen will go head-to-head with the Gordon Elliott’s star Samcro.
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And across channel at Kempton, Lostintranslation, Cyrname and Clans des Obeaux will be among the main attractions in the King George VI Chase.
The racing action at Leopardstown over the next few days will also include the Paddy Power Chase on Friday and the feature race of the week, the Savills Chase.
The big race could see Willie Mullins’s Gold Cup hero Al-Boum Photo return to the track to face off against stablemate Kemboy.
In football, every Premiership side will be in action between today and tomorrow with the top of the table clash between runaway leaders Liverpool and second place Leicester the standout fixture.
And on Saturday, old rivals Munster and Leinster meet again at Thomond Park and the latter head into it as the favourites to win.
Bookies Paddy Power said they are watching the King George VI Chase with trepidation – and a win by favourite Cyrname could cost them a pretty penny.
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Paddy said: “Cyrname is the highest rated chaser in training but if he wins the King George, we will be the ones doing the chasing.
“Add to that the likes of Laurina (Leopardstown) Samcro (Limerick) and Fusil Raffles (Kempton) winning this afternoon, and it would set us back seven figures.
“Those four represent four of the worst results for us in the book, and while there’s bound to be plenty of winning favourites today, we will be praying these in particular aren’t among them.”