Galway look to return to 2019 crowd levels for festival

Galway welcomes back racegoers to its world-renowned summer festival next week although officials don’t anticipate any post-pandemic boost in attendance figures.

Just less than 130,000 racegoers attended the last seven-day festival held in 2019 before the Covid pandemic struck.

That continued an overall slide in festival crowd figures from the remarkable official figure of 216,942 achieved at the height of the Celtic Tiger era in 2006.

The economic crash inevitably hit subsequent attendances and they have struggled to rally since.

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In 2015 total crowds reached 148,564 while there was a significant drop to 137,682 in 2017.

On the back of the pandemic, and in the midst of a current cost of living crisis, Irish racing’s overall attendance figures have slipped with details set to be released by Horse Racing Ireland in their half-year statistics for 2022 on Thursday.

The overall trend means extra attention will be on next week’s action which is always one of the most high-profile and popular fixtures of the year.

The track’s chief executive Michael Moloney believes stabilising attendances at 2019 levels will be a success next week.

“We are preparing for a crowd number in that region again. I think it’s very hard to know. Our ticket sales are quite strong. They would be significantly ahead of where we were at this stage in 2019.

“But I think people’s habits have changed during Covid and it’s hard to know how much of that uplift in pre-sales is due to the person who would normally pay on the day now buying a ticket,” he said on Tuesday.

“Attendance figures are obviously very significant. What we need is people through the gate. But we have to be realistic as well and look at sporting events up and down the country and in the UK.

“I struggle to find a sporting event anywhere in the UK and Ireland that has surpassed its 2019 numbers in recent months. To say that we’re going to buck the trend of everybody else would be foolish of me,” Moloney added.

General admission prices on the day at Galway will be €30 on the first three days and rise to €35 for both Thursday’s ‘Ladies Day’ action and a Friday programme that had become the best-attended of the week prior to the pandemic. Those tickets cost €5 less if purchased online beforehand.

The impact of Galway’s presence in this Sunday’s All-Ireland football final against Kerry in Croke Park could also be felt at Ballybrit.

“If they win it will be great for Galway for the week and we’ll get a bounce for the week out of that. But if they were to win it would affect the Monday because there would be a homecoming,” said Moloney who pointed to the wider context of a slip in sporting attendances generally.

“I don’t think it’s just racing. There were tickets for the All-Ireland [hurling final] floating around on Sunday morning and that’s unheard of.

“Attendance figures are significant. You don’t like to see them sliding. We will do everything in our power to get as many people through the gates as possible,” he commented.

Among those efforts is a Country Music Day programme on Galway Plate day featuring Nathan Carter.

Michael O’Leary landed the €270,000 Tote Galway Plate four times in five years between 2014-18 and has another leading contender this time in Fire Attack.

The Joseph O’Brien-trained horse is among the market leaders along with his stable companion Busselton as well as Cape Gentleman and Gabynako.

Adamantly Chosen is a general 7-1 favourite to continue Willie Mullins’s recent runs of success in the Guinness Galway Hurdle next Thursday. The champion trainer has won it four times in the last six years.

In other news, James Doyle will team up with Mishriff in Saturday’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot. Doyle replaces David Egan who split with Mishriff’s owner last week.

It has also been confirmed that Andrea Atzeni will take over from Frankie Dettori on the star stayer, Stradivarius, in next week’s Goodwood Cup.

Stradivarius’s owner, Bjorn Nielsen, didn’t disguise his unhappiness with Dettori’s ride on the horse in last month’s Ascot Gold Cup and has moved to end one of the sport’s most enduring partnerships.

Atzeni is unbeaten in three starts on Stradivarius including twice in the Goodwood Cup.

Colin Keane’s big race focus will be on the King George favourite Westover but Ireland’s champion jockey could enjoy a bumper Wednesday evening at Naas before that.

Keane and trainer Ger Lyons send a powerful-looking team including Sacred Bridge who dons first-time blinkers in the Listed Yeomanstown Stakes over a course and distance she has won over twice already.

The partnership are also likely to fancy their chances in the other Listed contest, the Arqana Marwell Stakes, with another course and distance winner, Mauiewowoe.