Family Fun at Gowran Park with Kilkenny Hurlers

Now in its seventh year the Kilkenny GAA race day got off to a flying start at Gowran Park for the flat meeting on the June bank holiday. This year as well as honouring the great minor captions from 1961 to 2014, punters also came out in style for the Best Dressed Ladies & Gent competition. Race track manager Eddie Scally said “I am delighted with our June Bank Holiday race day with Kilkenny GAA,  there was a super attendance with a lovely family atmosphere complimented by an array of kids activities. Special thanks to our guest judges for the best dressed, all our sponsors and the Kilkenny GAA race day committee for all their hard work.”

Barry Hickey and the race day committee put in trojan work to ensure this event was a success and despite training later on that day some of the Kilkenny senior hurlers made an appearance along with Brian Cody. Barry paid tribute to all the sponsors and advertisers “without their financial support it would not be possible for us to have the Hurlers Race Day.  We also thank Eddie Scally and Gowran Park for allowing us to join up with them for the occasion.” 

The Best Dressed

People love to get dressed up going to the races as it’s a sense of occasion for both the ladies and gentlemen as Eddie explains “for the adults we had a best dressed Lady & Gentleman competition kindly sponsored by the Kilkenny Rivercourt Hotel, Ballykeefe Distillery, Lady Lorna Design Emporium and Costellos Beer.  We were delighted to be joined by guest judges for the day SiobhanDonohoe, Niamh de Brun and Trish Murphy, Marketing Manager of the Rivercourt Hotel.

The Best Dressed Lady was won by Catherine Byrne from St. Mullins with second and third place going to Mary O’Halloran from Dublin and Gemma Hehir, Kilkenny. Michael Rice took home the Best Dressed Man’s prize.

Winning Minors

The All-Ireland Minor winning captains from 1961 to date were honoured at a function in the Roof Top Restaurant in Gowran Park on the day. There has been 16 victories to date with Joe Dunphy having the distinguished honour of captaining two winning teams. All-Ireland Winning (living) Minor Captains honoured on the day were Joe Dunphy (1961 & 1962), Brian Cody (1972),Kevin Robinson (1973), Harry Ryan (1975), Sean Fennelly (1977), Eddie Kennedy (1981), Patsy Brophy (1988), James McDermott (1990), Dan O’Neill (1991), Shane Doyle (1993), Michael Rice (2002), Richie Power (2003), Thomas Breen (2008), Cillian Buckley (2010) and Darragh Joyce (2014).

Racing

On the racing front trainer Willie McCreery and jockey Billy Lee had a great day recording a treble and local trainer Jim Bolger was in the winners enclosure with Cuban Hope. The next race meeting at Gowran Race Park is on Sunday 16th June with first race off at 2.05pm and complimentary bus from the Castle Gates at 1pm.