Races numbers down – but still over 184,000

Date Published: 07-Aug-2007

Crowds were down at this year’s Galway Races by nearly 6,000 but the 2007 punters had deeper pockets, gambling over €30m during the festival — €65,000 more than a year ago.

Over the seven-day festival, 184,180 people passed through the turnstiles, with Ladies Day firmly established as the biggest crowd puller with an attendance of 46,637.

Between them over the week, they splashed out a phenomenal €8,623,403 at the Tote and a mouth-watering €20,756,919 with the bookies. The biggest wagering was as usual done on Thursday’s Hurdle Day — the tote turnover reached €2.07m compared to €1.78m for the same day last year, while €4,411,408 changed hands at the bookies almost matching the 2006 record.

Including the €1.4m spent at Ladbrokes, betting over the festival reached over €30m — up €65,000 on 2006.

The crowds were around 3% down on last year when…..