Attendances up over 4% on first six months of last year
And, total Tote betting amounted to €20.2m, up €2.2m (12%) on the same period last year, while total sponsorship came to €3.4m up €273,326 (9%).
In addition, total off-course betting in the period exceeded €1 billion, an increase of over €196 million, or 22% on the corresponding period in 2003.
The figures were released yesterday by Horse Racing Ireland, whose Chief Executive, Brian Kavanagh, said: “The figures are extremely encouraging, and show that 2004 is likely to be another successful year for Irish racing.
“While attendance figures are on target, they were affected by a difficult month of June which saw a number of meetings hit by wet weather and clashes with major events such as the GAA provincial championships and the Euro 2004 soccer championships.”
He added that up to the end of May attendances were 11% ahead of last year’s attendances and he expect that level of demand to continue in the second half of the year.
Mid-June saw the return of Irish racing to TV screens following the launch of the new At the Races (ATR) channel. Under the terms of this new deal between HRI and the Association of Irish Racecourses (AIR), ATR will cover at least one fixture per day for each day that there is racing in Ireland (a minimum of 250 Irish race meetings per year). In addition to this, a second series of Go Racing, was launched on TV3 in April 2004, with over 100,000 viewers watching week on week.
At the beginning of the year, a new e500,000 TV and radio advertising campaign aimed at recruiting a new generation of racegoers, fronted by popular TV personality Hector Ó hEochagáin was launched. This is the first time HRI has joined up with an individual celebrity, with Hector fronting dedicated local radio campaigns and making guest appearances on a monthly basis at various race courses.
Looking back at the racing highlights of 2004 thus far, Kavanagh said the Cheltenham victory of Hardy Eustace in the champion Hurdle and Grey Swallow’s victory in the Irish Derby were among the biggest highlights.
In the meantime, Paddy Power has announced details of their new broadcast sponsorship deal which will see the country's biggest bookmaker sponsor all live horse racing televised by the National broadcaster, RTE.
The sponsorship arrangement will commence on Sunday 18 July 2004 with the broadcast of the Irish Oaks and will cover all 35 days of live horse racing each year. Highlights of the deal include the Galway Festival, Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival, the 2005 4-day Cheltenham Festival, the Aintree & Fairyhouse Grand National Meetings, the Punchestown Festival, the Irish Derby Meeting and the Irish Champion Stakes among many others.
Paddy Power Head of Communications, Mr. Paddy Power said: “We are thrilled to work in partnership with RTE helping to share some of the world’s finest racing with the Irish public. We are really looking forward to associating the Paddy Power brand with such a fantastic line up of sport over the next 12 months.
Gerry McGuinness, Head of Sponsorship for RTE, welcomed the deal, adding “Paddy Power’s unique sense of fun and long association with horse and greyhound racing makes them the ideal sponsors for the RTE broadcast”.
