Excitement building for Godolphin's 'brilliant initiative'

A bumper crowd expected to number close to 300 people will on Tuesday evening dance the night away at the hugely popular Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards in Kilkenny's Newpark Hotel.

The special guest at the ceremony will be the legendary Kilkenny hurling manager Brian Cody, who will present ten prizes worth a total of €80,000, with the winners also due to receive specially commissioned trophies designed by Ani Mollereau.

Godolphin managing director Joe Osborne will be in attendance and is looking forward to honouring racing's unsung heroes.

"We're hugely excited about the awards taking place," Osborne said. "There's a great cross-section of categories and everybody within the industry is catered for.

"As you would expect, the finalists are of the highest quality and the judges are going to have a difficult job on their hands picking one winner from each category. It promises to be a fantastic night."

Irish Stable Staff Association chairman Bernard Caldwell admits he is extremely appreciative that such an awards ceremony exists to highlight the important work carried out by stable staff.

Caldwell said: "This event has really taken life throughout the past few years and it wouldn’t be possible without the backing of so many people. To say it is appreciated is an understatement.

"The stable staff are the first people we should be trying to look after and thankfully they're getting the recognition they richly deserve. It's a brilliant initiative that is growing every year and it shines a light on the stable staff in this country – without them we wouldn't have the sport."