The Leopardstown Christmas Festival saw attendance climb on each of the four days with a total of 61,071 crossing the threshold of the South Dublin venue.
The St Stephen’s Day crowd saw the biggest rise with 14,651 through the gates compared to 11,844 on a wetter day in 2015.
“We are delighted with the success of this year’s Leopardstown Christmas Festival,” said Leopardstown CEO Pat Keogh.
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“It is wonderful to get great attendances on all days and to see so many young people enjoying their racing.”
“I would like to thank all our customers, owners, trainers, jockeys and most importantly our sponsors without whom we could not have staged this Festival.”
Those sponsors included Ryanair whose high profile CEO Michael O’Leary tasted success on Day three in the valuable Lexus Chase and was saved the potential awkwardness of handing over the Ryanair Hurdle trophy to Champion Trainer Willie Mullins, with whom he split last year, when that trainers hot favourite Nichols Canyon was beaten on the closing day.
“While the Festival is now behind us, we have plenty to look forward to in the New Year,” added Keogh.
“The Coral.ie Hurdle and BHP Insurance Irish Champion Hurdle will take place in January and the inaugural Stan James.com Irish Gold Cup is on Sunday, February 12th.”
Sport for Business will have news next week of an exciting competition for members to win tickets to the latter blue riband day in the sport.
Join us for a morning of learning, networking and insight on the sporting year ahead and the sponsorship trends that will impact upon us on January 20th. Reserve your place now.
