Crowds down slightly for Festival week Tote management will be wearing the biggest smiles after the final figures for the seven-day Galway Festival showed a healthy increase on those of 12 months ago. The total Tote aggregate of €6,746,803 showed a significant increase on last year’s tally of €5,547,305. The total attendance for the week was 138,945 which was down 1,169 on last year’s figure of 140,114. Once again Ladies Day on Thursday attracted the largest attendance with 32,663 racegoers at Ballybrit. The bookmaker figures were down about 10% on 2015 with a total of €7,971,007 wagered in the betting ring over the seven days. Reflecting on his first Festival meeting as manager, Michael Moloney said “It’s been a great week, and the total crowd figure would probably have been higher than last year but for a wet day on Tuesday (attendance down 3,452). “We are attracting an older crowd again on the Thursday which I think is important for Galway, and the attendance on Friday (27,093) was very encouraging. It seems to suit a different crowd to come on the Friday of a bank holiday weekend.”
