The Countdown to Ireland’s Largest Horse Racing Festival has begun. The Galway Races Summer Festival kicks off on Monday 26th July with the first of seven days of racing.
Galway Racecourse has submitted plans for 5,000 spectators per day at the outdoor event, and are waiting for an imminent decision in relation to this.
With fifty-two races over the seven days, the Festival has a prize fund of over €1.8 million. Each day offers a feature race with a minimum prize fund of €100,000. The hotly contested Tote Galway Plate on Wednesday 28th July, a race synonymous with Galway and key to the history of the festival, has received a significant increase of €50,000 with the prize fund for the race now standing at €250,000.
The Tote Galway Plate is a race awash with quality, with experienced chasers taking on emerging youngsters, and has produced some high-class recent winners including, Balko Des Flos and Road To Riches.
The race cards on Thursday 29th and Friday 30th July are sponsored in full by the Galway Races long-standing partner, Guinness, with Thursdays Guinness Galway Hurdle now worth €250,000, having also received a boost of €50,000.
Colm Quinn BMW, Tuesday’s title sponsor, have extended their partnership agreement of three valuable races across a top-class Tuesday card, culminating in the days feature race, The Colm Quinn BMW Mile Handicap, for a further five years, which brings their sponsorship of the Tuesday card to ten years. C
Caulfield Industrial, Irelands largest supplier of quality tools, equipment, cleanroom and safety supplies have also extended their partnership with Galway Racecourse for a further three years. Caulfield Industrial sponsor three races on the card on Tuesday of race week.
Increased Television Coverage
The first four action-packed days of the Galway Races will be broadcast on RTE Television, coming live from Ballybrit at 5 pm for two hours of commentary and insights, that includes the feature race on each day.
Galway Racecourse are also delighted to welcome back to Ballybrit after sixteen years the Irish language broadcaster, TG4, who will broadcast live on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st July. The live coverage on TG4 will include fifteen action packed races over the two days and feature races such as The Guinness Galway Blazers Steeplechase, The Guinness Galway Tribes Hurdle and The Galway Shopping Centre Handicap.
To complement the above television broadcast, Racing TV will cover and broadcast every one of the fifty-two races live from track.
Paddy Power has returned to sponsor the Best Turned Out Horse Series for the week in Ballybrit and will sponsor €100 to the groom in charge of the winning horse. In addition to this, an overall prize of €2,000 will be given for the Paddy Power Best Turned Out Series to the winning yard.
The team at Her.ie are once again sponsoring the hugely popular Best Dressed Competition this year. This year’s event held on Thursday 29th July will be judged by online influencer and model Louise O’Reilly.
Stay with us in the build up to race week as we look in greater details of elements of how the public will be able to engage with the racing.
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