Oylegate Cheltenham Preview Night 2023 night in County Wexford draws capacity crowd and raises money for hospice

MERNAGH’S Pub in Oylegate, County Wexford, was packed to capacity in the run up to the Cheltenham Race Festival.

The preview event gave those in attendance an insight into the current form of some of the horses taking part in what is one of the world’s biggest horse racing events. An expert panel was on hand to answer questions from the floor.

The panel was composed of Kevin O'Ryan (Racing TV) who acted as MC, Jane Mangan, Tom Malone, Paul Nolan, Noel Meade and Ian Amond (assistant trainer to Gordon Elliott).

Speaking about the event, Eamonn Mernagh from the pub, said it was a fantastic night and it drew a “very big crowd”.

"It really went brilliantly well and we were delighted with it,” he said.

"There was a very big crowd and we had a six-member panel of experts who were willing to answer questions and talk about certain horses and how they’re performing,” he added.

During the night Mr O’Ryan asked the other panel members about their feelings on how the festival will go and obviously a focus of attention was placed on how the Irish entries will do.

However, another aspect to the night and perhaps the most important one was that it was held to raise money for Wexford Spina Bifida and Wexford Hospice Homecare.

On that front the night was a resounding success raising a massive €12,000 for the charities, much to the delight of everyone involved.

"It was absolutely brilliant to raise that amount,” said Eamonn, who acknowledged the work of Peter and Katie Nolan in organising the event.

"We also had a charity auction on the night and that raised €6,400 and we held a raffle which raised €1,000, so we were delighted,” said Eamonn.

The organisers thanked everybody who supported the event and they also acknowledged the panel of experts for giving their time to preview what is a showcase event in the equestrian sporting world.