40,000 at Croke Park, 500 at the Curragh: anger as Irish racing is left behind

Dermot Weld and Jessica Harrington have issued rallying cries urging the Irish government to allow bigger crowds back on racecourses and fear losing fans to other sports if it doesn't happen quickly.

The government's decision to allow 40,000 into Croke Park for the All-Ireland football and hurling finals later this month, and 24,000 for the hurling semi-finals on Saturday and Sunday, has many in racing feeling left behind.

Irish race meetings, despite being staged in an outdoor environment, are allowed only 500 racegoers under the current restrictions and just 1,000 were permitted to attend each day of last week's Galway summer festival, much to the annoyance of the track's chief executive Michael Moloney and tens of thousands of Ballybrit regulars.

Weld was deeply frustrated by the numbers allowed to attend Galway and feels the time has come to get people back racing.

The trainer told the Racing Post: "Crowds should be back by now. I was very disappointed with what happened at Galway. They didn't even get close to the 5,000 people they requested each day.

"They could have at least allowed them to have 2,000 or 3,000 at a minimum. The reason given was contact tracing, but the one thing I can't understand is that there are 2,500 seats at Galway, so why weren't they utilised?

Dermot Weld: 'We need to get people back racing'Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

"Racing is in an outdoor environment and that's very important. And the other point I would make is the way racing has handled the whole situation so far. How we have handled the protocols has been exemplary and we should use that record to our advantage. We need to put it on the record how well we've done during the whole thing.

"We need crowds back. We need to get people back racing and I just hope that happens in the coming weeks."

Harrington believes vaccine certificates are the way forward in allowing people back into racecourses, as has been the case with indoor hospitality in Ireland since July 26.

She said: "If they're allowing fans into GAA matches, why aren't we allowed crowds back on racecourses? Why can't we do it the way everyone else is and allow vaccinated people to go racing once they have their vaccine cert? If they're vaccinated, let them in.

Jessica Harrington: 'If they're vaccinated, let them in'Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

"We're being very cautious and we'll lose our own fans if we don't get crowds back soon. It's worrying.

"I was at Naas the other day and they did an absolutely brilliant job. There was such a buzz around the place. It was great."

Noel Meade agreed that more racegoers should be allowed to attend on a day-to-day basis.

He said: "It's hard to understand how you couldn't have at least 1,000 at a meeting. I can't get my head around that, especially when you see the numbers attending GAA matches."

When questioned on the issue, Horse Racing Ireland's chief executive Brian Kavanagh said there will be more engagement with the government this week in the hope of increasing attendances, but he stressed racing is in a different position to GAA or soccer in that it is not a "one-off" event.

Kavanagh said: "It was disappointing that we were only able to get 1,000 people to Galway [each day] but that was out of our hands. Clearly it went very well and there was scope to have more people there. We'll now take it up again with the government.

"I notice the GAA figures have increased and the World Cup qualifiers were increased as well. We'll keep pursuing it, but as I understand racing was considered separately to other sports. These big sports events are one-offs whereas we have racing every day of the week."

He added: "We'll engage again with the government this week. At the moment, we continue to be limited to 500 people per fixture. Obviously that's not enough even for the ordinary fixtures and there are a number of fixtures where it is significantly inadequate. We'll try to push that. The vaccine situation nationally is encouraging, but all we can do is continue to make the case."

Asked about the possibility of using vaccine certificates to get people back racing, Kavanagh said: "We're willing to explore anything. If people are allowed to go to restaurants with the production of vaccine certs, certainly we'll be looking at a lot of the restaurants at racecourses and seeing whether that would apply.

"Everyone accepts things won't get back to normal immediately but you'd like to see it moving in the coming weeks and I think there is a basis for that to happen."

On the potential for a significant increase in attendance at Irish Champions Weekend and the Listowel Harvest Festival next month, Kavanagh said: "We'll certainly be looking for some decent numbers [at those events] and we'll engage with the government on that."

Read more on this subject:

Richard Forristal: The Irish government's treatment of racing is scandalous - and we need to say so

Irish racecourses chief wants 'people back racing as soon as we can'

Blow for Galway as crowds for summer festival are capped at 1,000 for each day

Irish tracks allowed to host 500 spectators as government relaxes outdoor rules

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