TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:

• Experience the "craic" of the Punchestown Festival.
• Enjoy true Irish hospitality at its finest.
• Savour Irish cuisine in one of the numerousrestaurants in and around Naas.

Punchestown is the home of Irish National Hunt racing and the Punchestown Festival is the highlight of the Irish sporting and social calendar. The Festival is considered the grande finale of the jump season with top class horses, trainers and jockeys from both sides of the Irish sea converging on the Kildare venue for a week of thrills and spills.

NAAS

Naas is an historic town that in early times was the seat of the Kings of Leinster. It is the county town of County Kildare and has matured through the years to become one of Ireland's more cosmopolitan towns. The local thoroughbred industry produces the finest racehorses in the world and this has led, over the years, to the establishment of three major racecourses in the immediate area, Punchestown, The Curragh and Naas.

PUNCHESTOWN FESTIVAL

Racing in Ireland is unique and for atmosphere, sheer enjoyment and what the locals call the "craic", there is nowhere to beat it! The standard of racing at the Punchestown Festival is of exceptionally high quality with 11 Group I races. We are delighted to offer you the opportunity to attend this historic race meeting where you will witness four days of the best week of National Hunt racing in Ireland.

In 2009, on the first day of the Festival, Paul Nicholls saddled the winner for the second consecutive year in the Grade 1 Kerrygold Champion Chase. Master Minded, ridden by Ruby Walsh, was odds on favourite but only just held on to win by a neck from Big Zeb ridden by Barry Geraghty.

The second day of the Festival hosted the Grade 1 Punchestown Guinness Gold Cup, which saw another hot favourite, Jim Dreaper's Notre Pere, who had won the Welsh National earlier in the season, win in convincing style from Schindler's List, trained by Dessie Hughes in second place with Scotsirish in third place.

The feature race on the third day, the Grade I Ladbrokes.com World Series Hurdle promised to be one of the best races of the meeting with several high-class hurdlers in the field. However, ante-post favourite Punchestowns, trained by Nicky Henderson, had to be withdrawn and once again it was Ruby Walsh riding the favourite Fiveforthree who won from Petitfour and Whatuthink in second and third places respectively.

On Friday, the fourth day of the Festival, Solwhit, partnered by Davy Russell, just beat last year's winner, Nicky Henderson's Punjabi, to win the Grade 1 Rabobank Champion Hurdle by a short head. Quevega, who started favourite, ran a good race to come in third.

Reserved Enclosure Admission is included for all four days.