Every year for the last week of July huge crowds gather at Ballybrit racecourse for the Galway races. The dates for this year’s festival are Monday July 26th to Sunday August 1st.
Over 150,000 people attended the summer festival meeting in 2009 and similar numbers are expected this year. Visitors come from all over the globe to soak up the unique atmosphere of the Galway races for what is very much a great social event, as well as a mixture of high quality jump and flat horseracing.
For the first two days, racing starts at the early evening time of 5.10 PM, giving the Galwegians time to head straight from work to the course, which is little more than 3 miles from the city centre and is well served by public transport.
This provides something of a prelude to the really serious racing to come on Wednesday, with the feature race being the Galway Plate which has prize money of over quarter of a million euro. The race attracts the best steeplechasers from all over Ireland, all striving to avoid a repeat of the 2008 success by top English trainer Paul Nicholls. The most famous of the Plate winners was the legendary Tipperary Boy who won the plate in 1899, 1901, and 1902.
Providing, you have not already been beaten by the bookmakers, who along with the Tote, enjoy massive takings over the course of the week. Attention switches to the Galway Hurdle on Thursday. The hurdle itself is notoriously difficult to select the winner from an extremely competitive and open field, which has not been won by the favourite in the last few years.
Away from the track Thursday is also Ladies Day, providing the opportunity to wear your best outfit and hat hoping for the prize of Best Dressed Lady, which carries with it jewellery, cash and vouchers to the value in excess of ten thousand euro.
It is back to evening racing on Friday, with crowds lining the Guinness and Oyster Bar and enjoying the fun loving ambience which is readily identifiable with the Galway Races . The week’s excitement closes on Sunday with a family fun day which incorporates a Mad Hatter competition and more great prizes are on offer.
Over recent years, The Galway Races have been dominated by the Dermot Weld yard who, although training mainly on the flat, has also had some notable successes over jumps. His two hundred plus previous winners are too many to mention but his record will make him hot favourite to land the ‘leading trainer’ honour at this year’s festival.
Over the week Galway is alive with a buzz that continues long after the races finish. There are many restaurants and pubs and one to check out locally is The Claregalway Hotel , which is a stone’s throw from the racecourse.