One last hurrah before exams!

Cork Racecourse is already looking forward to 2012 for its Student Raceday, which proved such a hit for its ‘debut run’ on last Thursday, March 31.

Limerick Racecourse’s highly successful, and growing, Student Evening yesterday drew a crowd of 8,800, proving to Cork Racecourse’s Sales & Marketing Manager Mary Kelly there is a market for such days.

Pro-active Kelly, the welcoming face for most race-goers on raceday, says “we had a big crowd on Thursday with 1,200 students attending. We put an awful lot of planning into the event and in our first year of the event, we were delighted with the numbers.”

“We received support from Horse Racing Ireland for the event and had to plan the event around exam times etc. With students, you don’t know until the last minute if they are going to come and we were still selling lots of tickets on the morning of the event.”

“I was thrilled to see the bus loads of students and was amazed by how well they dressed, particularly the lads!”

Regarding the issue of student drinking, Kelly is realistic and honest, saying “our own security staff travelled with the students from Cork and there was no real trouble throughout the day. Everyone had left by 10pm that night and infact the day attracted more ordinary punters than usual who came for the buzz and the noise!”

“Our ‘Cork Racecourse’ Facebook page has 265 professional photographs and you wouldn’t believe the interest in them. Photos from the evening have gone up all over the place and are being used as people’s profile pictures - I cannot buy the publicity created by the students themselves after the event.”

“We are lucky to be in a county with a University and two colleges and I think our night helped Limerick’s evening yesterday. I think there is an opportunity for both racecourses to work together as there is plenty of room for two such events before the exams and summer starts.”

Entry for Cork’s Students’ raceday was €8 while those who travelled by bus from Cork City were given both free admission and a racecard.

Kelly’s plans are already in place for next year and she says “we’ll definitely make it an annual thing and we’re hoping to build on it again next year. We’re either looking at the same date or the week before, in 2012.”

Cork’s next racemeeting is its three day Easter Festival, which begins on Saturday April 23.

Thomas Weekes