Curragh chief refuses to provide daily attendance figures for Guineas cards

The Curragh management has taken a decision not to publish specific figures for the opening two Irish Classics of the season, with the racecourse’s chief executive Derek McGrath instead providing one all-encompassing tally for the three-day festival.

Sunday saw the new €81m development officially opened by the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Aga Khan, after whom the new stand has been named.

In contrast to the customary practice of publishing attendance figures for major race meetings, McGrath refused to provide a breakdown of the daily gate receipts for Saturday’s 2,000 Guineas and Sunday’s 1,000 Guineas, both of which are sponsored by Tattersalls, instead supplying a total for the festival that got underway on Friday night.

They adopted a similar policy in 2018 when the site was under construction but the expectation was that normal service would be resumed for what are national sporting events on completion of the project.

“For the weekend the figure is 15,495,” McGrath said. “It is a Guineas weekend – that’s the number we are giving. I have nothing else to say on that.”

Derek McGrath: 'It's just an unfortunate clash in terms of both important events. Unfortunately, the GAA weren't able to meet our requests.'Credit: Patrick McCann

The seats in the upper portion of the grandstand, which is reserved for members and box holders, was largely empty for most of the weekend, with the lower part populated.

Explaining the reason for that, McGrath said: “We wanted to see how people use those seats, and then we can decide going forward how we are going to use them. We opened up a set of reserved seats for owners and trainers this weekend, so that is an example of how we are going to bed in.”

The premium membership packages cost €2,500. McGrath suggested around 20 have been sold but said they have yet to push them. “We’ve sold about 20 per cent of our target for the first year, which is 100,” he said. “We decided in the first instance that we are going to offer those to the members and previous season-ticket holders. Now we will look to exploit that commercially.”

On Sunday, when there was a light southerly breeze all day, a startling whirring noise, akin to a train approaching a station, whistled through the grandstand and could be heard around the racecourse.

"That is to do with the perforations in the roof itself," McGrath explained. "It is one of the snags we have picked up on and the architects and an acoustic engineer are monitoring the noise and then the fix will come."

Horse Racing Ireland chief executive Brian Kavanagh also clarified that the final cost of the revamp comes to €81.2m.

In a press release issued on behalf of the Curragh by FleishmanHillard, Mr Varadkar was quoted as saying HRI’s contribution came to €36m and 40 per cent of the overall cost, which can be extrapolated to €90m.

“The overall cost is €81.2 million,” Kavanagh said. “HRI have put in €36m, through a combination of grant and investment; a €12.5m grant and the balance is shareholding. The 40 per cent is wrong.”

Of attracting people back to the venue, he echoed McGrath’s sentiments: “The focus has been to get the development finished. There is work to do on the engagement here, so it is up to us and the team here to make sure it is a success. The challenge now is to promote the place.”

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