Naas Racecourse© Photo Healy Racing
A total of 28 horses remain in contention for the €300,000 Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes at Naas on Monday with six British-based entries including Jungle Mate. There is free entry to the Bank Holiday meeting and also the opportunity to win a trip to the Rugby World Cup.
Jungle Mate, successful on debut at Hamilton and second at Carlisle last time out, has pleased trainer Kevin Ryan who intends sending him over for this valuable prize.
“Jungle Mate is in good form and I was happy with his final piece of work so the plan is to run,” said Ryan of the son of Bungle Inthejungle.
“The ground is an unknown for him, but you never know until you run them on it and I feel he is a progressive horse who is getting stronger and stronger. It’s a big prize so we will let him take his chance.”
British-based trainers have left with some prize money since the inception of the Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes in 2020 and Ryan is hoping Jungle Mate could be his best candidate for the race.
“We’ve had a couple run in the race previously, but I think this fella could be our best chance yet. Shane Gray will go over and ride him. Shane knows him well, has ridden him in his two races and has ridden in Ireland so it makes sense.
“The horse is owned by the Bronte Collection who are all friends of Steve Parkin of Clipper Logistics and are getting great fun out of the game. They are a great bunch and are looking forward to Monday. It would be a nice race to win.”
The Aidan O’Brien-trained Brighter, Hugo Palmer’s Golden Trick, Tom Dascombe’s Innvincible Friend and That’s For Sure, trained by Karl Burke, are the other previous winners still among the entries.
Ballyhane will also be sponsoring admission for all patrons on the day and there will be a strong rugby theme as the nation builds up to next month’s Rugby World Cup. Prior to racing there will be a Rugby and Racing panel hosted by Hugh Cahill and featuring Rugby pundits Bernard Jackman and current Munster coach Mike Prendergast as well as Kevin O’Ryan.
Racegoers will get the opportunity to see the 2023 Grand Slam and Six Nations Trophies won by the Irish team, while there will also be the chance to win a trip to the Rugby World Cup.
Some lucky raceogers will be assigned a horse in the Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes and entered into a draw prior to the big race and the name paired with the winning horse will win a two-night package with return flights, hotel transfers, hotel B&B, pre-match lunch and tickets for Ireland v South Africa.
Racing is due to get underway at 2.15pm and also features the Group 3 Ballyroan Stakes in which the unbeaten Waltham, Irish Derby runner-up Adelaide River and Royal Ascot winner Vauban are all among the entries.
