Paddy Power reveals his double hope for the Dublin Racing Festival and Cheltenham

We can’t wait for the Dublin Racing Festival next month with the cream of the crop set to hit the track for the last time before Cheltenham. The new Circle Bar at Leopardstown was selling out so quickly, and it was proving tricky to get tickets… so I thought the best way to guarantee being there was to sponsor the race!

It’s such a great weekend of racing. It was always the Hennessy, a very famous race – perhaps we should even name it the Paddy Power Hennessy!

It’s a shame it never really had a sponsor who could take it on and carry that tradition, but I think we can definitely add something to it this year and make it a great craic.

I’m really happy they’ve brought it together because they used to have two or three meetings and the Hennessy day was always great, but the other one or two were always a bit disappointing in comparison. But it’s great to bring them together and now give it a proper focus with the Dublin Racing Festival.

Hopefully, we get all the Cheltenham horses out for their last run before the festival like we used to. I know Ruby Walsh thinks it fits perfectly in the racing calendar, with the timing between the first weekend of February and the second week of March.

We know the weather and ground will be key, but the timing is spot on. When you look at the card for both days, for the Saturday and the Sunday, it really is top-notch stuff. I know Ruby is thinking the same and can’t decide between the two which is best.

He’s even booked a hotel for the night so he can get the best of both.

You’ve got the Six Nations on too that weekend and then the Super Bowl overnight on Sunday… it’s got to be worth booking Monday and Tuesday off work to recover from all that!