WITH only two weeks to go until the gates open for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby festival, the racecourse has been a hive of activity. We hit the Derby Day capacity of 6,000 people on Tuesday evening and now is our opportunity to really build interest in the Friday and Sunday.

We have tried to manage expectations as best we can to ensure regular racing racegoers in particular have been aware of how ticket sales were progressing and the interest in tickets and hospitality has been overwhelming this year.

The prospect of the first, second and fourth from Epsom and runner-up from Chantilly will really help put the race this year on the international map.

The free entry initiative launched earlier this year and linked to some of the races in advance of the Irish Derby has been a great incentive to ensure trainers consider the race.

Our Derby launch party, which took place during the week, was a great success and although we promoted the event as garden party, the Irish weather meant we had to move indoors.

It was good to see Irish Derby-winning trainers Dermot Weld, Jim Bolger, John Oxx and Aidan O’Brien in attendance, in addition to Irish Derby-winning jockeys Seamus Heffernan, Kevin Manning and Pat Smullen. Trainers Tracey Collins, Jessica Harrington and Michael Halford were also there and I reminded Jessica that she could become the first female trainer to win the race if she wins with Grandee.

Lisa McGowan was there to talk about Derby Style and she couldn’t be better qualified as the winner of multiple best dressed competitions and also as the person behind the hugely popular Lisa’s Lust List blog (for all things fashion and style!).

The Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby Ball has been an important event for our title sponsors and has raised significant funds for our charity partner the Jack and Jill Foundation.

We recently met with their CEO, Hugo Jellett, to finalise plans and to focus on selling more tickets. Dubai Duty Free have really put huge effort into the entertainment programme on the night this year so hopefully as many people as possible will support the event.

Our association with Jack and Jill started with Jonathan Irwin and it has been a pleasure to deal with his successor, Hugo Jellet, since he took over. Hugo is also one of the founders of the Borris Literary Festival, which took place in the magnificent surroundings of Borris House in Co Carlow last weekend, and fortunately he managed to find me a ticket to see Florence Welsh (aka Florence and the Machine) who was there in a literary capacity to be interviewed by Fiachna Ó Braonáin (also well known as a member of the Hot House Flowers) to talk about her song writing. She even recited some James Joyce poetry.

Supporting local initiatives has been one of our priorities this year and our sponsorship of Junefest has been very well received. We took part in their massive street party recently, in the main street of the town, and the simulator from RACE and the Front Racing Club proved to be two of the most popular attractions.

We then entertained over 550 primary school kids from the locality as part of the build up to the inaugural Junefest race day. So many of them hadn’t been to the racecourse before and had the opportunity to be close to a horse, which on this occasion was supplied by Dick Brabazon.

Our attention now turns to Kildare Town and their annual Derby festival, which was founded in 1978. We are co-sponsoring the Grand Parade with Dubai Duty Free, taking place on Sunday 25th June, and the Vicky Barry Stage School will be representing us. My colleague Kate O’Sullivan has been lucky enough to be selected to represent the Curragh as a judge of the Derby Festival Queen – never an easy job!

Music and style

WE have a stellar line-up of music planned for the festival and I was delighted to be able to get Gemma Sugrue to perform both the National Anthem and our own anthem, The Winds of Glory, on Derby Day.

Gemma, who is based in Cork, has come to prominence as part of the Jenny Greene & the RTE Concert Orchestra 2FM Dance Anthems series of concerts. The 12-year-old singing sensation Hayley Keogh from Newbridge will perform The Curragh of Kildare. She made it through to the finals of the Irish Junior Eurovision competition and is tipped to be a future star of stage and screen.

Chanelle McCoy was at the racecourse recently to promote her role as our Irish Derby Style Ambassador and has been hugely supportive. Her role as part of the Dragon’s Den team has been really well received and I was delighted to hear that AP will join her as guests of the Curragh and Dubai Duty Free on the day.

We are delighted to be working with Hackett of London for the first time this year. They have an outlet in Kildare Village and a shop just off Grafton Street and have agreed to put plenty of their resources into their sponsorship of the Apprentice Derby to help us raise the profile of a race that has been won in the past by many well-known jockeys.

This year the winning jockey will receive a brand new Hackett suit as part of their prize. They are also supporting a competition to find the Hackett Most Stylish Man.