*It’s Dubai Duty Free Derby Weekend at the Curragh this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The eyes of the racing world will be focused on Kildare but the Festival is about more than just the thoroughbreds.
We sat down for the Thursday interview with Evan Arkwright, the Racing and Sponsorship Manager at the track and if this whets your appetite for experiencing the Sport of Kings, he will be more than happy to lay out a red carpet for your visit to the track.
Welcome to Sport for Business, Evan. Give us a sense of what that will be like at the track and around Kildare at the weekend.
There is huge anticipation building to the weekend both at the racecourse and in our locality. This will be the sixth Dubai Duty-Free Irish Derby since the venue was redeveloped, including the construction of our state-of-the-art grandstand.
Our ticket and hospitality sales are tracking ahead of last year, which is very positive. We have particularly gained from international visitors, who have been attracted to the many special early bird offers that we launched since the start of the year.
Friday evening is an informal fun evening with local sponsors and a great band after racing. Although we don’t officially call Saturday our Ladies’ Day, it has a very strong female theme with the best fillies competing in the Cairn Community Games Pretty Polly Stakes, the leading lady jockeys participating in the Kildare Village Ladies Derby, while the style stakes are very high with a competition sponsored by the K Club with lead judge Lyra.
Sunday is the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby, which is worthy of being called the most prestigious race day in the Irish racing calendar.
We work closely to engage the local community and support of the festival in Kildare Town is a critical element of this.
The festival has been very fortunate for the first time this year to benefit from the support and expertise of key members of the Failte Ireland team, which has been really beneficial to focus our efforts on ensuring we maximise attracting visitors to the town and also generating excitement amongst the local community.
Ultimately, we want businesses to benefit from the festival, whether people buy in the shops, stay in local accommodation, dine in restaurants after racing, or do something else.
You have 21 races across the three days, every one of them sponsored, that’s some achievement and some connection to the business community.
Our yearly objective is to land 100% sponsorship of all 170 races across our racing season, which we achieved last year.
Going into this year, we aimed to bring in new partnerships from a range of businesses who would work with us to proactively drive attendance and broaden the appeal of our race days to engage a new audience.
For example, on Friday evening, six of the race sponsors are local restaurants and bars that become advocates to encourage their customers to come to the races. Our partnerships with Molton Brown, together with our drinks partners such as La Celia from Chile, Moet, Whispering Angel, Aperol, Bottega, and Diageo, all help us extend our audience reach.
Our retail partner, Kildare Village, car partner, Fitzpatrick’s Mercedes-Benz and betting partner, Paddy Power, all have huge customer bases which we can tap into.
Cairn are on board on Sunday promoting the partnership with the Community Games, how did that come about?
We are thrilled to have Cairn sponsoring the feature race on Saturday. Their team have been a pleasure to work with. Their decision to use the profile of the race sponsorship to promote their partnership with the community games is very welcome and connects well with our own community campaigns that have seen us launch a number of community projects, which were acknowledged by the County Kildare Chamber of Commerce with an excellence in community award recently.
You are paying tribute to Colm McLoughlin, who stepped down this year as the Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Dubai Duty Free. How important has his personal support been down the years?
It is hard to express the outstanding commitment and support that Colm has shown since Dubai Duty-Free commenced supporting the Irish Derby in 2008.
He is without doubt a true friend of The Curragh. We will certainly miss him and his wife Breeda, but look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with Sinead El Sibai and the new Dubai Duty Free Managing Director Ramesh Cidambi and his deputy Salah Tahlak.
The Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby is the centrepiece. How important is the race in terms of Ireland’s leading role in the global bloodstock industry?
The race consistently attracts some of the best three-year-old colts in Europe and is a race that the top trainers and owners worldwide want to win. This year, the race looks particularly competitive, with a strong challenge from British-based trainers, therefore giving the race additional profile across the Irish Sea.
The race attracts significant national and international coverage, with terrestrial coverage by RTE and ITV and broadcasting across the globe via our partner, the Racecourse Media Group, ensuring millions of people will see it.
The addition of having all nine races on Derby Day as part of the Tote World Pool is hugely positive in particular for coverage into Asia.
This relatively new initiative allows bettors from all over the globe to bet into a single pool, bringing them together into one multi-million pound pool betting experience. It’s like the EuroMillions version of the lottery.
You also have an Abba tribute, Rake The Ashes, and an 80s Classics night as part of the Festival. How important is the entertainment side of a major sporting event?
The sporting action will be world-class, but we are in the entertainment business, and therefore, it is important to cater to as many people as possible to grow our attendance.
We need to ensure the festival is back on the social map. It is an event that people will not want to miss every year, so it is important to put together a programme across the weekend that appeals to as many people as possible.
Added attractions such as live music, great style competitions and free activities for younger racegoers are all important to the overall mix to create atmosphere and spectacle, ensuring the festival is part of everyone’s sporting and social calendar every year.
A Day at the Races is a great way to unwind, and with the sunshine forecast for Kildare, there will be a lot of fun to be had this weekend.
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