Prize money increases again for Galway summer festival

This year’s Galway summer racing festival was launched this week, with more than 150,000 racing fans expected to head to Ballybrit for the seven-day event, which runs from Monday July 25 to Sunday July 31.

Organisers expect more than 800 horses to take part in the 52 races in an attempt to take home a slice of record level prize money of €1,884,000, an increase of €83,000 on last year.

Proceedings will kick off on Monday evening with a host of local businesses continuing their association with summer festival. The Radisson Hotel, Galway Bay Hotel, Claregalway Hotel, Clayton Hotel, Easyfix Rubber Products, McGettigan’s Bar, and Eventus sponsor the supporting races on the card while The Connacht Hotel once again sponsor the feature race of the evening, the €80,000 amateurs derby, The Connacht Hotel Qualified Riders Handicap.

Colm Quinn BMW Athlone and Galway has been announced as the new title sponsor on Tuesday evening. This partnership deal extends to three valuable races across a top-class card, culminating in the day’s feature race, The Colm Quinn BMW Mile Handicap. The feature takes place at 6.50pm and is one of the country’s richest flat handicaps, worth a whopping €120,000.

Tote Ireland continue to sponsor the Wednesday card, and thetote.com Galway Plate holds a prize fund of €220,000.

The highlight of the week for many is Thursday’s Guinness Galway Hurdle day, the feature of which is the richest National Hunt race ever to be run in Ireland, worth €300,000.

The feature races on the other festival days are worth a minimum of €80,000, while there has also been an increased focus on the supporting races each day, with the minimum value of any race during the week now standing at €15,000 – the minimum value of a race in Galway in 2014 was €10,000.

The action off the track on Hurdle Day will attract as much attention as the racing, with the g Hotel & Spa announced as sponsor of this year’s highly Best Dressed Lady Competition, sponsoring both the Best Dressed Lady competition, with a prize worth €10,000; and the Best Hat competition with a prize to the value of €2,000.

The judging panel on the day will be led by Today FM DJ Louise Duffy, who will be joined by Irish Independent & Weekend Magazine fashion editor, Bairbre Power; and Image Publications Editor-in-Chief Melanie Morris.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.