GALWAY Racecourse boss Michael Moloney says he is pleased with attendance numbers at the first four days of this week’s Summer Festival, despite a drop of 3.7% on last year.

Damp conditions on the first two evenings and a clash with the Mayo All-Ireland celebrations undoubtedly had a negative effect on the Ballybrit crowd figures.

Tote turnover was up 2.4% over the first four days, while betting ring turnover dipped by 1.4% across the opening three sessions.

“I think it’s been really, really positive,” Moloney said. “Yes, the weather and Mayo had an effect on Monday but since that, we’ve been on par.

“Thursday was probably the most pleasing because we did a lot of work in terms of discouraging unaccompanied under-18s from attending. As a result we had a much older age profile here for Hurdle day and our crowd was still a significant figure. We turned away a lot of [underage] people.”

Despite inflation and growing cost-of-living pressures, spending in the bars and food outlets remained strong this week, Moloney said. The new Schweppes Cocktail Bar and Tote 26 lounge have proven popular, he said.

Friday night’s fixture attracted 26,000 last year – bigger than any of the first four days – and both Saturday and Sunday are likely to draw approximately 13,500 racegoers.

Challenging conditions

Moloney also praised the work done by his groundstaff. “We had 2mm of rain on July 1st and we’ve had about another 2mm over the past four weeks.

“So it’s been an incredible effort from the team out in the track to be able to provide the ground that they have. I haven’t heard too many complaints. It’s been riding well, and there’s a lot of work to put in between here and Sunday.”

The ground was described as good on the National Hunt tracks on all four days (good to yielding on the chase course on Thursday). The going on the flat track was officially yielding on the opening three days, and yielding to soft on Thursday. On Wednesday, jump jockey Harry Cobden said of the hurdles track: “In England you’d call that soft ground but over here the lads are all telling me it’s good ground which is exactly what it is.”

After riding a winner on Thursday, flat jockey Joey Sheridan said: “I’d call it soft flat ground. I walked it with Paul Townend before the first race. He put the stick in and it’s soft; it’s riding soft.” Gary Carroll made similar comments after riding a winner later in the day.

The Irish Field’s racing data analyst Angus McNae said: “My overall take from Monday’s flat racing figures was that the ground was at least soft, if not heavy.

“The ground was faster on Tuesday. An assessment of yielding to soft would be accurate. The data suggests we were back on soft ground on Wednesday and it is fair to assume the National Hunt track rode softer than described as well.”

Moloney said: “In terms of the National Hunt line, it’s always our aim to have it on the easy side of good ground, and I think that’s where we started off the week.

“Then, when the ground starts to open up it starts to change a little bit, and then as we move in [to fresher ground] during the week, you get naturally softer lines.

“There are variations as you move in or out. When we move out to a wider hurdle track on Saturday and Sunday, that’s a naturally kinder line as well, so you will see the hurdle track slowing down for the weekend. All in all, it’s been good safe ground.”