Big British contingent expected to descend on the Dublin Racing Festival this weekend

After attendances rocketed up by 40 per cent last year, Leopardstown bosses are expecting another colossal crowd to descend on the capital this weekend for the Dublin Racing Festival with a large influx of racegoers from Britain expected to cross the Irish Sea for the two-day event.

A total of 34,591 attended last year's festival with both days' crowds surpassing any previous day in the short history of the fixture since it became a double-header in 2018. 

The festival boasts eight Grade 1 contests, split evenly across the Saturday and Sunday, with more than €2m in prize-money on offer throughout the two days. The other supporting races consist of Graded and handicap contests with a minimum kitty of €100,000.

An estimated 27 per cent of tickets were purchased by British racegoers for the 2023 festival and Leopardstown chief executive Tim Husbands is forecasting an even larger British contingent of racegoers to travel over this weekend.

Husbands said: "To all intents and purposes, hospitality sold out about a month ago. There's hardly anything left. I think that's a combination of people having repeat bookings and there's been a lot of interest from Britain which is why it's booked up a bit earlier than we expected. Ticket sales are stride for stride with last year so we're looking forward to a very, very busy festival.

"We're looking forward to plenty of racegoers travelling over given a lot of our bookings have gone in advance. We've been working with our partners Race And Stay and they have seen a significant uplift in their bookings from Britain so I think you'll be hearing a lot of English, Scottish and Welsh voices around the city this weekend.

Leopardstown chief executive Tim Husbands expecting a large British contingent at the DRFCredit: Caroline Norris (racingpost.com/photos)

"The hurdles track is soft, soft to heavy in places and the chase track is yielding to soft, soft in places. There's a little bit of uncertainty over the next 24 hours but after that it looks like it's going to dry up a bit which is great news. We're hopeful of really nice ground for what is our premier festival of the year." 

Despite the weather failing to play ball, Leopardstown also saw a 2.5 per cent increase in crowds for its Christmas festival in 2023 with a total of 62,069 spectators attending across the four days and — given last year's roaring success — Husbands is hopeful the track can maintain its recent upward curve although it is hurtling towards maximum capacity.

"We did very well last year but it's quite a tight site so there's not a whole lot we can do," he said. "If we get the same figures again then I would be delighted.

"If we can get a couple of hundred over it then great but we are reaching our limit. We were two and a half per cent up at Christmas and the weather was atrocious, particularly for the middle two days. That kind of weather is not expected this weekend so we're all set for a big bank holiday.

"We have some great entertainment with some traditional Irish music and dancers around the site and there'll be some drummers welcoming racegoers. On the Saturday, we have trad band Rake The Ashes playing afterwards and we've Pogueology performing on Sunday, which is a nice tribute to The Pogues and is very fitting given the passing of Shane MacGowan late last year."

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