Take a sip of Ballybrit Lite, it won't taste the same but you might like it

It's the Galway Races but not as we know it. Well, sort of as we know it. It does bear some resemblance to the traditional summer shindig, but it is a bit like David Schwimmer looking in the mirror and seeing David Jennings' reflection.

There are still seven days; there is still the Plate and the Hurdle; there will still be people – but it won't be, as a city restaurateur JP McMahon sniped a few years ago, "rag week for adults".

The track's chief executive Michael Moloney pleaded for 5,000 a day, but he has to make do with 1,000 – just over five per cent of the 129,118 who attended in 2019 – as Horse Racing Ireland chief executive Brian Kavanagh explained that contact tracing was not straightforward at a race meeting because "you're in constant flow and constant movement."