Winter festival in Fairyhouse to take centre stage

Defeats for Garrycastle and Milltownpass at the weekend drew a line under Westmeath's GAA activity for the year, as both clubs fell narrowly short in their respective away Leinster semi finals. For most sports followers in the North Westmeath area, the focus now turns to sports like rugby and national hunt racing, both of which are in full swing right now.Racing followers are in for a particularly exciting weekend, with the Winter Festival at Fairyhouse taking centre stage. Sunday's card features three Grade 1 races, including the eagerly awaited Hatton's Grace Hurdle over two and a half miles. The growing rivalry between Solwhit and Hurricane Fly has been a central story in Irish hurdling in recent years and the former's win in the Morgiana Hurdle two weeks ago proved that he's right on his game at this early stage of the season.Hurricane Fly has suffered from some setbacks, including missing the Morgiana, but he did undergo a workout in Punchestown on the flat recently and Jockey Paul Townend reported that he was very happy with how that went. Solwhit would probably be the safer call, but if Hurricane Fly is primed for this race, he could yet come into contention.An intriguing runner in this race is Paul Nolan's Shinrock Paddy, who has so far suffered only one reverse over timber when he was pulled up in the Albert Bartlett hurdle at last year's Cheltenham Festival. The six year old gelding started the season with a very impressive win in the Tipper Hurdle at Naas and looks to be an up and coming sort. He'll look for heavier going at the weekend and is unlikely to be out of the mix if the Meath venue gets any rain whatsoever. He could be the one to look out for as thousands of Westmeath racing followers make the trip east this weekend.There is also some GAA activity this week, with deciders taking place in the Leinster Club hurling championship and the Ulster Club football championship. Westmeath Hurling followers will be keeping a keen eye on the performance of Oulart the Ballagh in Carlow against O'Loughlin Gaels, as a strong performance from the Wexford champions would reflect well on the achievements of Raharney.Without wishing to demean Raharney's substantial achievements this year, the odds of 11/8 about O'Loughlin Gaels are possibly the best betting offer available this week.Oulart are highly rated due to their substantial contingent of county players and their performance against Ballyhale Shamrocks last year when they took the eventual All Ireland winners to extra time, but they didn't look like potential All Ireland winners in Mullingar a fortnight ago, at a time when O'Loughlin Gaels were showing serious resolve to come through a tough test against Ballyboden. It's been a long time since a Kilkenny hurling team was under-rated, but Paddy Powers may have made that mistake this week.Finally this weekend, Leinster rugby will look to overcome the absence of several international players when they take on the Ospreys in Wales. The Ospreys were very fortunate to come out of Galway with a win last week and they might feel the loss of their international players even more sharply than Leinster. After a bad start to the year, Leinster have turned their fortunes around and they should be able to break through the Ospreys' defensive set to pick up a couple of tries. At even money with Paddy Powers, they represent good value this week.Top Tips:Shinrock Paddy to win the Hatton's Grace HurdleO'Loughlin Gaels to beat Oulart the Ballagh 11/8Leinster to beat the Ospreys 1/1