PUNCHESTOWN boss Dick O’Sullivan is keeping his fingers crossed that A.P. McCoy will not retire before the Punchestown Festival.

The racing world was stunned by McCoy’s recent announcement that he will retire “at the end of the season” after 20 years at the top of his profession in Britain. Although no fixed date has been given for his final ride, it is generally expected that he will close out his British career at Sandown on Saturday, April 25th, when he receives the champion jockey trophy for the final time.

However, the Punchestown Festival starts the following Tuesday and McCoy would likely be in line for a string of good mounts at the five-day meeting. McCoy has said his employer J.P. McManus will decide where and when the jockey will bow out but that he intends to “go out on a winner”. One theory in circulation is that McCoy will ride at Punchestown on the understanding that he will retire after a winner in the McManus silks. O’Sullivan said: “It would be impertinent for us to put any pressure on A.P. to ride at Punchestown but he would get a hero’s welcome if he did. He must rank as one of the greatest sportsmen of modern times and the most important thing is that he stays safe between now and his retirement.”

STRONG SALES

Ticket sales, corporate bookings and shopping village reservations are all up at Punchestown ahead of the 2015 Festival. “We had 106,000 people here over the five days last year and, weather permitting, we could hit 110,000 this year,” O’Sullivan said.

“We deal with 725 companies, including sponsors and suppliers, and we can detect a small pick-up in business. Our marketing budget is small in comparison to similar Festivals in Britain but we know that 20% of Festival racegoers are British, which is remarkable.”

O’Sullivan revealed that Punchestown’s yearly turnover is €4.8 million and €500,000 of that is needed to service debts inherited from previous management. “It costs us €2.4 million to run 17 days’ racing and, after all our expenses, we are lucky to clear €200,000 each year. We haven’t spent a cent on capital development since 1998 but we have worked hard and innovated where we could so that we can contniue to compete with Cheltenham and Aintree.”

The Saturday of the Festival has been the biggest success story under O’Sullivan’s reign. “It started off as an industry day with only 1,500 people here. Now the locals have really got behind it and last year the attendance was 27,000 - the biggest of the week.”