The Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown took advantage of the sunshine, the new bank holiday, and the fact that Ireland were away in the Guinness Six nations to post an attendance over the two days of 34,591, an increase of almost 10,000 on 2022, and 8,000 ahead of the last Festival before Covid struck in 2020.
over one-quarter of all the tickets sold were bought by visitors from Britain with the quality of the racing and the facilities hailed by those coming as being the reason for wanting to come.
Sunday’s feature contest was the Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle won by Joe and Marie Donnelly’s State Man beating three-time winner Honeysuckle into second place on her farewell to the track. The mare and her jockey Rachael Blackmore got the biggest cheer of the day but could not bring the house down with a final Dublin victory.
The first Grade 1 on the card the Ladbrokes Novice Chase was won by the Gordon Elliott-trained Mighty Potter under Davy Russell for Caldwell Construction Limited.
The Ladbrokes Dublin Chase went to the JP McManus-owned Gentleman Du Mee under jockey Danny Mullins who replaced injured Mark Walsh, for trainer Willie Mullins.
Willie Mullins had a weekend to remember with eight winners across the two days, including Galopin Des Champs in the feature Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup on Saturday.
He is now the short-price favourite to double up with victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup next month.
“A heartfelt thanks to the 16,830 racegoers on Sunday and the 18,121 on Saturday, our sponsors, owners, trainers, jockeys, stable staff and of course the brilliant equine stars who all made this year’s Dublin Racing Festival so special,” said Leopardstown CEO Tim Husbands.
“The success of the weekend comes on the back of a very successful Leopardstown Christmas Festival which grew attendance by six percent on 2019.”
“We are delighted to see that trend and atmosphere continue this weekend. The Christmas Festival saw satisfaction up across all areas including atmosphere, warmth of welcome, food and drink, seating, and value for money. We planned to grow on that success at the Dublin Racing Festival which has surpassed all our expectations.”
