Today’s attendance at The Curragh, which was inevitably going to suffer due to the Dublin v Kildare football match, was down over 10% on last year’s figure.

The crowd of 21,768 was some 2,500 down on the total 12 months ago

The Tote aggregate of €630k (boosted by betting from France) was also well down on last year’s €749k total, while the Tote Jackpot failed to surpass its guarantee of €15,000.

However betting with the bookmakers bucked the overall trend with turnover in the ring up just over 10% on last year at €1,361,948.

The feature race generated most interest on a sunny afternoon, with in excess of €400,000 bet on the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby (well up on last year's renewal won by Cape Blanco).