Colm Greaves: Cheltenham could learn a few lessons from Dublin Racing Festival

The quality of racing, the informal atmosphere, the sheer ease of attendance and the comparative costs make Dublin a more preferable option for British racegoers to spend their Festival pounds

GRIM: Cheltenham is becoming an increasingly grim racing experience with a few too many people drinking a few too many expensive pints. Pic: PA

Glastonbury is just over an hour south of that Cheltenham hill which means that the locations for the world’s most iconic rock and racing Festivals are separated by just 80 miles of M5 motorway. This is about the same distance that separates Leopardstown’s Dublin Racing Festival from the site of the Electric Picnic in Laois. There is no disputing that the two English based festivals are the giant woolly mammoths of these worlds, ours being a little more niche and gentle. But which are the more enjoyable?

The recent Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown in February could prove a tipping point in this argument in the coming years. Attendance was up by 40% on 2022 and a quarter of the tickets were sold in Britain. The influential broadcaster, Jane Mangan said on RTÉ that it was ‘the most enjoyable weekend of Irish racing most of us have ever experienced.’