Here to stay: Dublin Festival has bright future say HRI and Leopardstown chiefs

The Dublin Racing Festival is here to stay, that is the message from Horse Racing Ireland and Leopardstown chief executives who are convinced the two-day early February fixture will blossom in the coming years despite the overall attendance last weekend dropping by 1,880 from the inaugural festival in 2018.

An inspection, forced to be called for 8am on Sunday morning due to the threat of overnight frost, was the key contributor to a crowd of 11,712 on day two according to Leopardstown chief Pat Keogh, who also felt the hangover from the Six Nations showdown between Ireland and England in Dublin on Saturday evening and a raft of non-runners on the card were partly to blame for an attendance which was 319 fewer than the same day in 2018.

Pat Keogh: delighted with second Dublin Racing FestivalCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

"A precautionary inspection is the kiss of death, I have seen it time and time again. If there is even the slightest doubt, there are people who will make plans to do something else," said Keogh.

"Obviously such a big rugby match is going to impact both days and the non-runners on Sunday wouldn’t have helped either but overall, I was delighted with how the weekend went. I'm extremely happy. Our sponsors were over the moon and racing professionals were all very complimentary.

"What we're trying to do is establish a major festival and I'm very hopeful it will grow and grow in years to come. Ultimately, in time, attendances will be a barometer for how successful or not the festival is but that's a risky short-term way of doing it.

"You wouldn't believe the amount of positive comments we have received from happy racegoers. The racing was of a higher quality this year and we'd be hoping to increase prize-money again next year."

Brian Kavanagh, HRI’s chief executive, echoed Keogh’s comments and said Ireland’s newest festival is going nowhere.

"The Dublin Racing Festival is here to stay. We like the concept and we think it's working. It was a great weekend of racing and, while I acknowledge there are a few issues which need to be looked at, I think the festival was great overall and there was a terrific atmosphere there on both days," Kavanagh said.

Brian Kavanagh: 'Dublin Racing Festival is a concept we like and it's here to stay'Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

The biggest issue of all last weekend, especially on Sunday, was the ground but Keogh stressed there was no way his team could have watered given the freezing temperatures.

"We did the best with the cards we were dealt. We'll obviously review the situation and have consultation with other tracks, like we always do. We'll pull our expertise from everywhere as we'd love to know what the solution is if the situation were to happen again," Keogh said.

“We had overnight temperatures of -3C and it reached -6.8C in Dublin last week so if we watered it would have frozen on top and there would have been no racing at all."

There were only four British-trained runners but Keogh is hoping the success of La Bague Au Roi in the Flogas Novice Chase will entice more visitors to take their chance.

He added: "It was brilliant to see La Bague Au Roi winning and hopefully her success will increase awareness in the UK. English trainers know there's no point in coming over unless they have a real chance, such is the competitiveness of the racing here, but we're hoping there will be even more interest from the UK next year."

DUBLIN RACING FESTIVAL IN NUMBERS

Total attendance
2019 24,256
2018 26,136

Saturday attendance
2019 12,544
2018 14,105

Sunday attendance
2019 11,712
2018 12,031

Tote
2019 €856,034
2018 €1,104,569

Bookmakers
2019 €1,920,796
2018 €2,071,636

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