GALWAY General Manager Michael Moloney is anticipating a much improved Galway Plate day attendance, with general admission ticket sales significantly up on last year.

Wednesday’s card has been moved to an evening meeting in a bid to bolster declining crowd figures. A total of 17,332 attended Galway Plate day last year, a 4% drop on the year before, while 30,294 attended Thursday’s Ladies Day and Friday’s attendance improved to 29,421.

Moloney said: “We’re delighted to see advance general admission ticket sales have taken a jump. That has not always been the case down the years with the general admission not going as well as the corporate packages.

“Wednesday and Friday are selling well, and we’re particularly pleased about Wednesday. The move to an evening meeting seems like it is working and it would be great to get a big crowd in for 149th running of the Plate.”

Moloney also reported that corporate ticket packages have sold out for the first five days. At the time of writing, the ground at Galway is good on the National Hunt course and yielding on the flat course, after 17mls of rain hit the track on Thursday.

“We welcomed that rain and the track has taken it extremely well. We could have another 12-15mls through the weekend so it’s hard to make a call on the ground for Monday right now,” Moloney said.

Scattered showers are forecast for Monday and Tuesday with a much brighter outlook for Wednesday and Thursday.