Aidan O'Brien scoops the big prize at tonight's Curragh Racing Awards

The crème de la crème of the Irish horse racing world attended the annual Curragh Racing Awards on Thursday, 12th November. The event was staged in association with Tipperary Crystal and Kildare Village, who hosted the evening at their superb L’Officina Restaurant.

Aidan O’Brien and Seamus Heffernan were the big winners as they were awarded the Irish Daily Mail Training and Riding Performance of the Year Awards. There were selected from 8 monthly winners, with O’Brien the monthly winner for May and September following a number of high profile successes, while Heffernan claimed his Award for his winning ride on Diamondsandrubies in the Group One Sea The Stars Pretty Polly Stakes last June.

Special Achievement Awards, in association with Kildare Village, were presented to Curragh based trainer Sandra Hughes for her success in the Irish Grand National with Thunder and Rose and to Dermot Weld to honour his magnificent season which included sending out two Group 1 winners from his Curragh base. An Award was also presented to Willie Mullins in recognition of using the Curragh Training Grounds to prepare many of his greatest winners in 2015.

John Weld, Chairman of the Curragh Racecourse, commented:

“The Curragh Racecourse enjoyed a very positive year in 2015 with increases in attendance, betting, prize money on offer and international competition and it is important that we celebrate and acknowledge some of the tremendous achievements that have taken place on our track over the past year. We appreciate the significant support of our partners Kildare Village, Tipperary Crystal and the Irish Daily Mail who have all helped us develop the CurraghRacing Awards into a major event in the Irish Racing Calendar.”

Andrew Marshall, Business Director at Kildare Village said, “We are delighted to once again play host to the Curragh Racing Awards here at Kildare Village for the 6th consecutive year and wish to offer our congratulations to Aidan O’Brien in winning leading training performance of the year for the second year running. The fashion stakes were high at this year’s Curragh Racing Awards and with glamour such an important ingredient, Kildare Village is proud to bring these elements to such an important event each year”.