Leopardstown to honour all tickets sold for four-day Christmas festival

Leopardstown chief executive Tim Husbands said on Monday that a Herculean effort from his staff over the weekend and some careful rejigging of the numbers have ensured the track will be able to honour all of the tickets sold for the Christmas festival.

Husbands' plans were thrown into disarray on Friday when the government put a cap of 5,000 people attending sporting events until January 30 to combat the spread of the Omicron variant.

Leopardstown was working towards a figure of 6,000 people per day, and had already put up the 'sold out' sign, but after a weekend of reviewing allocations to sponsors and communicating with the public, Husbands said all tickets will be honoured.

He explained: "We were working hard over the weekend to try to make it happen, and we're delighted that everyone who has a ticket is guaranteed entry to the Christmas festival [which begins on December 26].

"Having looked through our allocations to sponsors and hospitality etc, obviously it's disappointing that some people don't wish to come, but what it means now is that everyone who has bought tickets is guaranteed entry. All tickets will be honoured across the four days of the festival."

Husbands has guaranteed a safe and enjoyable experience for the 5,000 in attendance for each of the four days. He said: "We will be able to maintain a safe and enjoyable experience for the 5,000 who attend each day of the festival in line with the government guidelines. It was a tough weekend for a lot of people working here at Leopardstown, but it's great to be able to guarantee those tickets and now we can look forward to some top-class racing."

Gowran Park's popular Goffs Thyestes Chase day will be one of the biggest meetings affected by government guidelines next month. The card is sceduled for January 27, just before restrictions end, but it is understood a change is not under consideration. The track's popular Red Mills Day comes soon after that fixture on February 19.

Gowran Park: likely to be badly affected by Covid restrictionsCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Manager Eddie Scally said: "Typically, you'd be looking at 10,000 for Thyestes day in a normal year. In accordance with government guidelines at the moment, we can only operate up to 5,000 for outdoor events.

"We're assessing all our options to see what is the maximum number of people we can bring to Gowran Park and give them a really good day out. We're going to review the situation around January 9.

"Our corporate hospitality is sold out three years in advance. That's one of the more difficult things to work around because with indoor dining we have to reduce our capacity by 50 per cent."

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