Punchestown boss happy with weekend figures for inaugural festival and 'delighted it's going in the right direction'

Punchestown chief executive Conor O'Neill believes the weekend's inaugural festival, which combined the Morgiana Hurdle and John Durkan Chase, produced a solid foundation to build on for the track and said the two Grade 1 events were likely to remain on separate days.

The two-day festival formed the middle leg of a new winter weekend triple-header featuring three consecutive high-class weekends of action at Navan, Punchestown and Fairyhouse. This meant both the Morgiana Hurdle and John Durkan Chase were amalgamated into one weekend, with the latter brought forward in the calendar by two weeks.

O'Neill feels the changes provided a much-needed boost to the John Durkan, which was won by the Martin Brassil-trained Fastorslow. He said: "For the first year, we were very pleased as it's a solid foundation to build on. In particular, the John Durkan had been suffering for many years and it was something we were keen to move forward. It wasn't getting the attendance a race of that calibre should.

"It was also probably too close to big races at Christmas as horses running in the race generally bypassed Christmas. We certainly think we have a good foundation to continue to build on and improve going forward."

A total of 4,276 racegoers attended on Saturday, while there was a 27 per cent boost to 5,445 on Sunday, bringing the total to 9,721 across the weekend. Saturday's card clashed with Betfair Chase day at Haydock but O'Neill feels the meeting was more adversely affected before the new format when it clashed with Cheltenham's November meeting.

Asked whether he was happy with the attendance figures, he said: "Saturday was up on 2022 and Sunday was remarkably up so I'm delighted that it's going in the right direction, although I'd like to think we could absolutely improve and we'll be focusing on that. Haydock and Ascot were on Saturday but previously the Morgiana clashed with the November meeting at Cheltenham, which I would have thought drew a lot more Irish people over."

The desire to promote the weekend in its entirety was behind the decision to put the Grade 1 contests on separate days as opposed to running them both on Sunday, and O'Neill believes that is the correct approach.

He said: "One of the big debates we had was which way we structured the weekend in terms of whether we put the two Grade 1s on the same day or separate days. We're trying to build the weekend in its entirety and by putting the two Grade 1s on the one day, you obviously weaken the Saturday. Also, the Morgiana on Saturday gained ITV coverage, which is great for the track and the sponsors Unibet.

"You're trying to lift both days and we felt if we really want to try and improve the weekend as a whole, we had to put a Grade 1 on Saturday and Sunday to give each day its rightful prominence. I'd think it's likely the schedule will stay, but we're always open to change. We'll go back and review every aspect of the weekend and see what we can improve."

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