Good year for Irish racing

Horse-racing officials have expressed their delight after figures released today showed Irish racing continued in a healthy state last year.

A substantial growth in Tote betting, more success for the major festivals, increased sponsorship and significant growth in racehorse ownership were the highlights.

Crowd figures at at the festival meetings again provided a highlight with the Galway September Festival at 12,500 (+ 52%) and the Tramore August Festival at 23,000 (+ 28%) showing the most dynamic growth.

Overall attendances, however, fell just short of 2003’s record figure of 1.4million and on-course bookmaker betting declined by 4.6% from €183m (€260.9m) to €174.7m (€249.1m).

On-course betting declined by 1.8 per cent with bookmakers experiencing a decrease of 4.6% from €183m (€260.9m) to €174.7m (€249m).

But on-course SP shops and the Tote showed increases of 18% and 7% respectively.

National Hunt prize-money increased by 6.7% to €26.9m (€38.4m) and Flat prize-money increased by 1.2 per cent from €25.2m (€35.9m) to €25.6m (€36.5m).

New owners’ registrations rose from 850 to 1,000 and the average number of horses in training went up from 5,672 to 6,004.

Horse Racing Ireland’s chief executive Brian Kavanagh said: “We knew that 2004 would be a very competitive market-place, particularly with the Olympics and Euro 2004.

“In that climate I am delighted to see the continuing dynamism in Irish racing, with most of the key indicators showing satisfactory increases.”