FAIRYHOUSE manager Peter Roe hailed an Easter Monday crowd of 16,165 at this year’s BoyleSports Irish Grand National as a great result for the meeting, representing an increase of 7% compared to last year’s attendance figure.

A total of 28,834 passed through Fairyhouse’s gates over the three days - up almost 7% from 2022’s figure of 27,050 - and Roe was enthused by the atmosphere created on track.

Racegoers were singing in the grandstand ahead of multiple races, and - just like 12 months earlier - a chorus of Hey Baby could be heard clearly across the track while runners lined up at the start for the €500,000 feature.

“We had a great weekend,” said Roe. “There were a couple of dirty showers on Monday but there was a great crowd. The figure of 16,165 is up roughly 1,100 on last year’s crowd. We had a super result in the BoyleSports Irish Grand National too.

“It’s a great team effort from everyone to keep developing this meeting. We all start talking again the morning after the Irish Grand National about what we can do to improve it, enhance it. These things don’t happen overnight, but it’s been going well over the last couple of years.”

On the atmosphere before the main event, Roe added: “There was some buzz before the race got underway. We had Hey Baby being sung in the stands ahead of the race - I think that’s becoming our anthem here! We’re grateful to everyone who contributed to a successful weekend, including our sponsors.”

There were also solid viewing figures on RTE for Easter Monday’s card, with a peak audience of 348,000 tuning in for I Am Maximus’ thrilling win under Paul Townend (up marginally from 346,000 in 2022).

Last year’s Easter Monday average across the entire broadcast was 159,000 (audience share of 28%) while the average for the same meeting this year was 176,000 (audience share of 27%).

Approximately 12,000 people attended Cork’s three-day Easter meeting, bringing the total number of racegoers across both tracks to over 40,000 last weekend.

Course manager Andrew Hogan said: “We were delighted with the weekend. The team here did a great job. In particular we saw a lot of students coming back, having enjoyed themselves at our recent student raceday.”