A combination of bad weather, adverse ground conditions and an extraordinary number of rescheduled fixtures led to a reduction in attendance, entries, runners and field sizes in the first six months of the year.
Key statistics for the first half of 2024, released by Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), also show an increase in total prize money, race sponsorship, and the number of new owners, along with a slight decrease in the number of horses in training.
Attendances at key dates, including Leopardstown’s Dublin Racing Festival, BoyleSports Irish Grand National Day at Fairyhouse, and Dubai Duty-Free Irish Derby Day at the Curragh, were all up last year. Overall, though, reported attendance was reduced by 1.5% to 535,831.
Total race sponsorship was €4.6m, an increase of 4.5%, and total prizemoney reached €31m, up 1.3%, despite a reduction in the number of race meetings by three to 173 compared to the same period in 2023.
The total number of horses-in-training fell by 2.5% to 8,394, and total entries were 7% down at 27,692. The number of new owners rose to 486, an increase of 6.8% on the first six months of last year, while the number of active owners reduced by 2.1% to 3,763.
Total Tote betting (excluding World Pools) was down 5% to €32.2m, while total on-course betting came in at €35.1m, a reduction of 2.8%.
On-course bookmaker betting reached €31.3m, down 2.5%.
“While the overall reduction in the number of meetings is minimal, the disruption to the fixture list, in April in particular, had a negative impact in many areas,” said Horse Racing Ireland CEO Suzanne Eade.
In the face of the adverse conditions, it is to the industry’s credit that the vast majority of the races lost were run off at a later date.
“But it is clear that losing 12 of the 33 fixtures originally scheduled for April left its mark. That disruption, coming as it did as the National Hunt season was drawing to its conclusion and as the new Flat term was kicking off, affected many of our figures, including entries, runners and field sizes.
“Rescheduled fixtures do not attract the same crowd figures that might have attended on the original date. The drop in attendance in the first six months of the year would have been avoided if several of those fixtures had gone ahead as planned.
“Attendances at the bigger meetings held up well, a record crowd on the opening day of the Dublin Racing Festival for example led to a rise of 4% year-on-year across both days of the fixture that continues to attract considerable numbers of overseas visitors.
“An increase in attendance was also recorded on Irish Grand National Day at Fairyhouse and on Derby Day at the Curragh with figures from Punchestown Festival coming in close to one year ago.
“It was important for Ireland to host the World Pool on two days at the Curragh in May and June. These days bring the very best of Irish racing to an audience across the globe, and we certainly look forward to the World Pool returning to Leopardstown for day one of the Irish Champions Festival in September. Everything is pointing to a truly international flavour to this year’s Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes, one of the season’s great races.”
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