Where were the racegoers?

Sir, - I attended the Tuesday meeting at Galway’s recent September fixture. I arrived at the track in plenty of time and it was so quiet I thought it was called off!

There were three listed races on the day with very good prize money. Yet there were very few people there on a fine day in September at Ballybrit. I was also in Galway in August when people were queuing up in the rain to get in.

On the drive home that evening, I asked myself why was it so different in September.

Galway city has a huge population, a huge workforce, as I found out when I hit rush hour traffic on the way out. Yet very few went to the races.

I have sympathy for the race sponsors.

Now I read that Galway’s October fixture is to be extended to three days in 2018. Is this wise? I think a lot of work has to be done to get people to support these dates.

I imagine that a lot of the smaller tracks around the country would be thrilled to have such a big population on their doorstep. – Yours etc.,

JIM RYAN,

Nenagh,

Co Tipperary.

Galway Racecourse manager Michael Moloney replies:

Sir, - I can assure Mr Ryan that the team here at Galway work very hard to promote Irish racing and we received a huge groundswell of support both from the local market, wider national and overseas market during our summer festival. We have been inundated already with enquiries for our 2018 festival which is a great reflection on this year’s event,

On the day Mr Ryan refers to we had a total attendance of 882, which was a significant drop from an attendance of 1,634 on the corresponding fixture in 2016.

On review we feel there were a number of reasons that impacted the attendance on the day. During the 2017 fixture list allocation process a request was made to the Galway race committee to move this fixture a week later so that the Listowel Festival could avoid a clash with the National Ploughing Championships, a request the Galway race committee were very happy to facilitate. However it did mean that this fixture clashed with opening day of the hugely popular ploughing championships, where visitor numbers on the day reached 112,500.

Also as a result of moving this fixture a week later it became an afternoon fixture as opposed to an evening fixture, as it had been in the past. This therefore meant that those who were previously able to attend the fixture after finishing their day at work were unable to do so this year due to the 2.25pm start time.

With regards to making our October bank holiday Festival a three-day event in 2018 we are delighted with this prospect. Our research shows us that from our repeat customers who come back to visit us after the summer festival, they tend to visit us for our two-day October bank holiday festival that occurs when they can relax with no work commitments on the cards and enjoy the weekend racing experience here at Galway.

With almost 8,000 people attending the two-day festival in 2016 we feel the addition of a Saturday card will enable us to grow and promote attendances for Galway and Irish racing further. - Yours etc.,

MICHAEL MOLONEY

General Manager,

Galway Racecourse