The price of a pint is about to rise again but that hasn’t stopped British racing fans from buying hundreds of tickets for next month’s Dublin Racing Festival.
Leopardstown racecourse revealed this week that one in five DRF tickets have been bought in the UK — as the course predicts a big travelling contingent for the two-day Festival on the first weekend in February.
It’s a huge boost to the event — first run in 2018 — and further evidence that racegoers in the the UK are becoming increasingly frustrated with the cost associated with attending big race days over there.
That’s not to say that going racing in Ireland is cheap. It’s most definitely not. But more affordable ticket prices and a weak euro has made Leopardstown a real alternative to Cheltenham for many across the pond.
The racing is also top class. Last year’s DRF featured Cheltenham winners like Honeysuckle, Vauban, Facile Vega and Sir Gerhard and €2 million in prize-money. Galopin Des Champs also won there and the Gold Cup favourite will be back again in three weeks time.
An DRF Early Bird Weekend ticket is priced at €50 (£44) while general admission on one of the days is priced at €30 (£26.50). That compares with a Club enclosure badge for one day at Cheltenham in March costing £103 (€116).
Gold Cup day is an eye-watering £118 or €133. There are ‘cheaper’ places to watch the racing but having gone to Cheltenham for 25 years you could really do with being in the Club enclosure.
In truth, the Dublin Racing Festival can’t realistically be compared with the lure and history of Cheltenham but it’s definitely evolving into a proper event and if all the top Irish horses are winning at both meetings, it’s a no brainer for the British who can afford it to come here and enjoy a break for much a much cheaper.
Leopardstown’s big advantage is its location too. It’s a short Luas ride from the centre of Dublin and relatively stress free for visitors staying in the captial city.
This year’s DRF falls on a new St Brigid's Bank Holiday too and promises to be something special with Leopardstown still on a high from their Christmas meeting.
A total of 60,478 spectators attended the Dublin track over Christmas, an increase of six per cent compared to the last pre-Covid one in 2019, and their chief executive Tim Husbands is hoping that trend will continue next month.
What really needs to happen now is that UK trainers must start sending their horses to Dublin. The lack of interest in the event among the top British handlers is simply baffling — not just for the DRF but also for the four-day Christmas meeting.
Incredibly not one UK-trained horse competed at Christmas despite races like the Paddy Power Chase boasting prize-funds of almost €200,000.
And only two have been entered in the Grade 1 races next month — Weveallbeencaught (Nathaniel Lacy Solicitors Novice Hurdle) Sceau Royal (Ladbrokes Dublin Chase).
Last year Paul Nicholls was bravely the only British trainer to saddle runners at the DRF — Frodon and Greaneteen — but at the time his yard was badly out of form and both struggled.
The Warren Greatrex-trained La Bague Au Roi remains the only British-trained winner at the Dublin Racing Festival since its inception — an astonishingly poor record desptie the fact that in 2021 no visiting runners were permitted.
This year that trend is unlikely to be bucked.
Nicky Henderson had mentioned the Dublin Racing Festival as a potential target for Constitution HIll but everyone knew the prospect seemed very unlikely. Henderson has become very conservative with his horses and wrapping them up in cotton wool is now his preferred approach.
He’ll wait to take on Honeysuckle at Cheltenham — and most likely beat her — and turn down the opportunity of pick up €114,000 for doing the same in Dublin.
British trainers excuse in recent times has been that there’s little point in taking on the all-conquering Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott in their own backyard.
They might have a point but all you have to do is look at the story of Simply Ned to prove that it can be done.
Nicky RIchards’ gutsy two-mile chaser was a regular visitor to Leopardstown and in 2017 he turned over the odds on Min in a Grade 1 at Christmas and proved it was no fluke by doing the same to Mullins’ Footpad in the same race a year later.
Cheltenham is special. And long may it last. Nothing compares to a Gold Cup or a Champion Hurdle.
But there’s more to the National Hunt season other than one week in March.
The punters know it. It’s time for the trainers to follow the crowd.
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