Irish racing’s successful experiment with early evening start times for feature events continues at Leopardstown today when the Connolly’s red Mills Irish Champions Stakes gets underway at 5.45.  The race will be broadcast around the world on RTE and At the races and has drawn a high class international field with Nathaniel, winner of the prestigious Coral Eclipse Stakes in England joined by Snow Fairy travelling from Newmarket.  Home hopes rest with the Aidan O’Brien trained St Nicholas Abbey and a lively potential outsider in Born to Sea.
Last year’s attendance of 8,000 was marginally up on 2010 but still only half what it would be at the Lepardstown Christmas meeting and this is an area racecourse manager Pat Keogh is keen to address.
Leopardstown racecourse expects to see an increase on last year’s crowd figure for the Irish Champion Stakes when its showpiece Flat race is staged in the early evening for the second time on Saturday. Last year’s initial experiment with a late start time for the Group One contest added only a few hundred to the 2010 attendance but, with a fine evening forecast and three of Europe’s top middle-distance horses in opposition in the feature event, there are hopes of a significant increase on the 2011 total of just over 8,000 racegoers.
This year’s Irish Derby at The Curragh followed the lead set by last year’s Irish Champion Stakes, when it was staged as the final event on an eight-race card, while the Irish St Leger later this month has also moved later into the day. Leopardstown does not anticipate a return to anything like the crowd of more than 17,000 who saw Fantastic Light beat Galileo in 2001 but anything close to five figures would be a move in the right direction after a steady decline in Saturday attendance at Irish racecourses in general.
“Last year’s move was a positive one and we want to build on that,” he said. “Saturday is a busy family day with people trying to cram a lot in.  There will be big crowds locally for sailing events in Dun Laoghaire and up in Dublin for the All Ireland. We have found that this window of early evening is a popular one and also gives a significant lift in TV viewing which is a good thing for our sponsors.”
People come out and spend the evening here, listening to some music after racing, having something to eat and really make an evening of it.”
KPMG and Coolmore Stud are also sponsoring major races at Leopardstown this evening.
View all the latest news on the commercial side of Irish sport
Find out more about how Sport for Business can be of benefit to you
Subscribe today for the free Sport for Business daily news digest