The BoyleSports Irish Grand National on Monday attracted a record attendance at Fairyhouse, despite the bad weather and doubled down with a big number of TV viewers, perhaps because of it.
The race was won by I Am Maximus, ridden by Paul Townend, who despite being Champion Jockey on six occasions was riding the winner of the race for the first time.
Owned by JP McManus who owned his first winner of the race a full 40 years ago, and trained by Willie Mullins who on Sunday set a new record number of Irish winners in a single season, the horse was a well-backed 8-1 chance.
His victory was cheered on at the Co Meath track by 16,195.
The number watching RTÉ’s coverage hit a peak of 348,000. This is a substantial rise on the regular racing viewing figures though they have been consistently rising in the past couple of years as well.
411,000 tuned in over the four days of the Christmas meetings at Leopardstown and Limerick this year, up from 381,000 in 2020, even though crowds were back in force this year having been unable to attend during the lockdowns of 2020.
Virgin Media’s coverage of the Cheltenham Festival would normally exceed 200,000 on the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup days.
“We had all four seasons within half an hour on Monday,” said BoyleSports Head of Sponsorship Sharon McHugh, “but it was great to see such a high level of attendance and interest, and great to be part of such a prestigious event in the Irish sporting calendar.
