The Irish Grand National is a key date towards the end of the National Hunt season with the marathon event scheduled to take place on Easter Monday every year.
Held on the final day of the Fairyhouse Easter Festival, the stamina-sapping contest is the feature race during a three-day event that includes multiple Grade 1 contests.
Irish Grand National date
This year's race scheduled to take place on Monday 6th April 2026.
Irish Grand National venue
Held on the final day of Fairyhouse's famous Easter Festival, the track is located towards the east coast of Ireland, not far from Dublin.
Irish Grand National details
Contested over a distance of 3m5f, participants travel right-handed around the track and are expected to jump 24 fences in the process.
The race is typically ran in testing conditions with the ground commonly soft/heavy, making it an extreme test of stamina.
Irish Grand National history
Established in 1870, the race is now seen as the pinnacle of Irish jump's racing with a €270,000 prize on offer for the winner.
The race has always been held at Fairyhouse and with the event sitting on Easter Monday, it has always been popular with racegoers.
Winners of the contest have also seen success in the English version of the race. There have been many examples of this including Bobbyjo, Numbersixvalverde and most recently I Am Maximus.
Most recently, the race was won by Rebecca Curtis-trained Haiti Couleurs. It marked the first time the UK had won the race in over a decade.
Irish Grand National most successful trainer
Tom Dreaper has the most race wins with 10 victories to his name.
He enjoyed unprecedented success in the early 60's, training six consecutive winners of the race.
Dreaper trained arguably two of the greatest steeplechasers of all-time in Arkle and Flyingbolt, both winners of the Irish Grand National.
Irish Grand National most successful jockey
Jockey for three of Dreaper's successes was Pat Taaffe.
His wins for the trainer were Fortria (1961), Arkle (1964) and Flyingbolt (1966).
Prior to this, Taaffe had ridden Royal Approach (1954), Umm (1955) and Zonda (1959) to victory.
Away from the Irish Grand National, Taaffe is one of the most revered National Hunt jockeys of all-time, also registering four wins in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Irish Grand National famous winners
The race has an illustrious roll of honour with Desert Orchid arguably the most famous of all.
Affectionately known as 'Dessie', the grey captured the imagination of racing fans. As well as the Irish Grand National, he won the King George on four occasions and triumphed in the 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup.
The aforementioned Arkle, whose victory came in 1964, went onto achieve the highest Timeform rating of any steeplechaser in history. His incredible CV has led to many considering him as the greatest National Hunt horse of all-time.
More recently, I Am Maximus became the latest in a long line of Irish and English Grand National winners. His win gave trainer Willie Mullins his second race triumph.
2026 saw Emmet Mullins break new ground by training Soldier In Milan to win the race by 16 lengths as a novice. The seven-year-old was contesting bumpers last season and only won his first chase start in February, just two months prior to the Irish Grand National.
