Punchestown festival hits new heights

Crowd attendance and betting records were broken at last week’s ever-popular Punchestown Festival.

A total of 90,868 racegoers attended the four-day meeting, an increase of 7%, including 32,883 on the Friday.

Bookmaker and Tote turnover figures increased by 11% and 28% respectively.

Delighted Punchestown general manager Dick O’Sullivan said: “It was a super week and fantastic to see so many records broken.

“Whilst the whole team worked equally hard to make it such, special mention should go to Sean Ryan, our track manager and his team.

“It was a monumental task to keep the ground right with the weather we experienced in April and they rose to the occasion.”