Crowds hold steady but bookies feel the pinch at Galway Races

Date Published: 27-Jul-2011

Organisers of the Galway Races are confident that attendance figures will hold up for the rest of the week, reporting an “excellent” opening to the Summer Festival, despite betting turnover dropping – by almost one-third at the Tote on the second day.

A total of 17,570 racegoers clicked through the turnstiles on Monday (down 391 on last year), while Tuesday saw a drop of 350, from 17,860 last year to 17,510 this year.

While the numbers are holding up well, it was the bookies and the Tote that felt the pinch – Monday’s bookmaker turnover was down 13% from €1,678,949 in 2010 to €1,464,826, while the Tote was down less than 6% from €702,081 to €663,167.

“It’s going very good so far, the attendances are holding up. The opening has been excellent. Betting is down, people just don’t have as much money and more and in the first couple of days, punters lost, and that would have an effect.

“We’re confident today [Ladies Day] should see a very good crowd, the forecast is good and people know what to expect,” Racecourse Manager John Moloney told the Connacht Tribune.

And a tip for the thousands of ladies heading to Ballybrit this afternoon – Mr Moloney said to back the Dermot Weld trained ‘Hidden Universe’ in the Guinness Galway Hurdle.

See full story and coverage in this week’s Connacht Tribune.