CORK racecourse manager Andrew Hogan says a decision from the University College Cork Students’ Union to ban promotion of student race days will have “absolutely no impact whatsoever” on the track’s student race day going forward.

UCC students voted in favour of a motion which was brought forward as a result of a petition by the UCC Vegan Society, and also involves the UCCSU to no longer condone or endorse events involving horse racing or betting on animals.

The story appeared in the Irish Examiner this week and caught significant traction on social media and various radio talk shows across the country.

Students have thronged Irish racecourses in recent weeks, with Leopardstown and Limerick both selling out their maximum 10,000 tickets. Cork’s annual student race day took place on March 23rd and also sold out its capacity at 2,500.

Like Limerick, Cork sell their tickets through a website called Future Ticketing, rather than working directly with the various local universities, colleges and institutes.

Hogan said: “I wouldn’t see the ban on promotion of student racedays at UCC having an effect. I was speaking to students from UCC yesterday and there were six of them coming racing on Sunday. I’d say it will have absolutely no impact whatsoever. The students’ union in UCC haven’t been in favour of student racedays for many years now so we’ve actually been working away separately.

“There is a very strong Equine Society in UCC and they haven’t been allowed to promote it.

“That is fine of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you look at the article in the Examiner and you turn over the next page and you see a picture of students from Cork up at Leopardstown.

“We limit our student race day to 2,500 as we’re a bit off the beaten track and to make it more comfortable for everyone. The tickets sold out in 22 minutes this year.”

Both Leopardstown and Limerick reported their student race day crowds up among their highest attended meetings of the year.

Limerick manager Tom Rudd said: “We sold out our student race day the other week back in November - all the tickets were gone in 45 minutes.

“It would be one of our highest attendances of the year - we’d usually get around 10,000 for St Stephen’s Day which is our biggest day. The student day is a big thing for us and I think it’s hugely important.

“Even without my racecourse cap on, these days are hugely positive for racing. If we only got 10% of the crowd coming back racing more regularly, it would be worth it.”

Leopardstown chief executive officer Tim Husbands said: “We had 10,000 or so here on Wednesday and it was great to hear the roar from them as the horses passed the stand. It’s a really important day for us.

“We respect everyone’s opinion about the student day but the students we talk to, they thoroughly enjoy the experience of it and they learn about horse racing.

“We have a database of students so providing they click the data provision, we can track them over the next couple of years and you can see that they come back. Also, we’ve had a number of sponsors come to us having come here to the student race day before.”