LEOPARDSTOWN was buzzing on Thursday when I visited Pat Keogh ahead of the upcoming Christmas Racing Festival. Inside and outside the offices there was a palpable air of expectation ahead of four of the best days of National Hunt racing in the year.

The Christmas Festival is a unique blend of some exceptional racing, combined with a traditional celebration of the holiday season for both city and country people. With this mix of attendees Pat is keen to stress that racegoers will find a number of nice surprises when they attend the Foxrock track.

“I cannot emphasise enough the quality racing that will be staged over the four days of Christmas,” Pat enthused. “We will see many of the stars of the Irish jumps scene, while every year you look back at the novices who won and see them develop into the stars of tomorrow.”

Any sit down with Pat is always informative and enlightening, and he is a man who is always thinking ahead.

Pragmatism is another quality he possesses, and he never gets carried away. Everything is a work in progress, and Pat is a great believer that there is nothing that cannot be improved. The current focus might be next week’s biggest meeting of the year, but parts of Pat’s and his team’s thoughts are on the new Dublin Racing Festival (February 3rd and 4th), and even further ahead to the Longines Irish Champions Weekend.

The new Dublin Racing Festival is one of the biggest initiatives undertaken by the racecourse and Pat is very pleased with the reaction to it. Bringing together three different meetings under one ‘weekend umbrella’ required support from sponsors, Horse Racing Ireland and other racecourses, all of which was forthcoming.

“We are extremely grateful to the other racecourses that were inconvenienced by our move.”

THE WAY FORWARD

Pat explains: “Research shows that festivals are the way forward, not just in racing but in all sports. You have to make these events destinations in themselves, and we believe that the new Dublin Racing Festival has the potential to be very big. It is perfectly positioned in the calendar, and it will hopefully get buy-on from everyone. We are already seeing great interest from racegoers, at home and in Britain.”

While enjoying the Christmas Festival, racegoers will not fail to realise that the Dublin Racing Festival follows on six weeks later, and January 1st will see the promotional campaign crank up a few gears.

“The strength of the programme should ensure that most of the Irish racing stars will use the Grade 1 races, and others, as a final launch-pad for their Cheltenham attacks.”

One of the most prominent messages that Pat gets on his trips to Britain is how impressed owners and trainers are with the prizemoney levels in Ireland, though it is a double-edged sword as it means that Ireland also has a higher proportion of the best horses and owners vying for the big pots at home.

Pat is optimistic while being pragmatic, and he believes that racing has a bright future. He points to the fact that the Club 30 Membership, for fans under 30, has doubled in the past 12 months and is now a meaningful percentage of the overall membership. This bodes well for the future, but Pat is keen to increase these numbers further.

Thinking ahead to next autumn, Pat has been working on the ground to attract more international participation for the Longines Irish Champions Weekend, and he wants to broaden the appeal of the meeting to attract a bigger audience.

Given the way Pat approaches these three major racing Festivals, without forgetting about the many other meetings staged at Leopardstown, it is odds-on he will be staging three big winners.