Crowd up on day five

Day five of the Galway Festival bucked the trend this week with the attendance of 25,240 up 2,186 on the corresponding Friday evening meeting last year - an increase of over 9%.

Betting with both the Tote and the bookmakers was down on 12 months ago, with the Tote aggregate 11% lower at €745,517 as against €837,920 last year.

The bookmakers ring was 7% lower at €1,874,815 compared with €2,016,534 last year.

The seven race mixed card tomorrow gets underway at 2.25pm, with the feature being the Ladbrokes “Biggest Names Best Prices” Premier Handicap over seven furlongs with a prize-fund of €70,000.

Alan Magee