A bumper crowd at Leopardstown for the opening day of DRF© Photo Healy Racing
I was abroad when the Dublin Racing Festival (DRF) took place at Leopardstown at the beginning of the month, but was delighted to hear that the opening day on the Saturday had attracted a bumper crowd of just over 20,000, a record for the event, with a significant portion of the audience travelling over from the UK.
Racing attendances in Ireland have been in steady decline for years, so it was fantastic news to see a flagship event like the DRF buck the trend and grow their numbers significantly.
The DRF has been a resounding success on many levels since its inception seven years ago. A weekend of the highest quality National Hunt racing taking place at the optimum time in the jumps season and pitched at an affordable price for sporting fans. What’s not to like?
Well, unfortunately, it seems there was plenty not to like for many of the racegoers in attendance. Social Media was awash with complaints and gripes from genuine racing fans that had their day spoiled to varying degrees by traffic congestion and long queues for drinks, cash machines and toilets at the venue.
When you think of all the work and planning that goes into an event like DRF, all the prize money on offer to attract the best horses, all the marketing and promotions to attract the audience and then the event falls down on the basics that should be a given for any large gathering.
It’s not as if this was some sort of one off music festival taking place in a farmer’s field in the back of beyond. We are talking about one of our sports iconic and longest standing venues with, for the most part, state of the art facilities including unrivalled motorway access.
We are also not talking about a Croke Park size attendance here of eighty plus thousand. This was only one quarter of the number of people that attend All Ireland finals twice each year. These sort of numbers should be manageable.
Long queues for ATMs, toilets and bars are perennial problems which should be easily fixed.
I remember going into a Casino on the Gold Coast of Australia some 35 years ago where they had an entire room dedicated to ATMs with over a dozen of the cash machines spread around the walls. In more recent years in Ireland almost every service station and convenience shop has an in-store ATM, yet we still see Leopardstown Racecourse reminding people in advance of their big days to make sure and get cash before they travel to the races because of limited ATM facilities.
I brought my wife to the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse the year Flashing Steel won the race in 1995. She spent over an hour queuing for the Ladies toilets in the freezing cold. She has never gone back there since.
The crowd on the second day of the DRF was 20% lower than on the first day. You would have to wonder if some of the missing 4,000 on the Sunday had been in attendance on the Saturday and, like my wife, simply couldn’t face another day of queuing.
If horse racing is to ever regain its mojo when it comes to attracting big audiences back to the sport it must first ensure that everything is in place to give the paying customers the best possible experience when they do turn up.
It was sad to hear of the passing of Maureen Mullins last week. The 94-year-old was a constant presence throughout all my life going racing and some of my earliest memories of going to the track as a child were following her to Tote windows to see what she was backing.
She loved to have a bet and was both passionate and knowledgeable about racing, but most of all she was a steadying force for her family and leaves behind an incredible legacy.
Too often we don’t appreciate people like Maureen Mullins until they are gone, but I’m proud to say that wasn’t the case with this incredible lady. Back in 2016 Horse Racing Ireland presented her with the ‘contribution to the industry award’ which was a very fitting recognition of her incredible life spent within the sport.
