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.