Survey Reveals What’s Keeping Irish Racegoers Away From The Track

irishracing.com’s new State of Racing survey suggests ticket prices and the competitiveness of Irish racing are the biggest barriers to increased attendance at race meetings.

Of those surveyed, 43.19% claimed they would be more likely to attend if Irish racing was more competitive while over a third (35.48%) claimed lower ticket prices would make them attend more regularly.

irishracing.com’s Key Findings: The Data

Respondents could select multiple options; the percentages below reflect how many chose each reason.

Note: The “other” responses ranged from requests for improved seating and family-friendly scheduling to complaints about bookmaker practices and the overall atmosphere at certain venues.

Why This Matters

For the first half of 2025, HRI reported a total attendance of 566,377, up 6.9% for the same period in 2024.

However, as irishracing.com editor Vincent Finegan pointed out when those figures were published in July, the attendance figures for the first half of 2024 had dropped by 6,250 from when they were released in July 2024, leaving an unexplained gap.

The full figures from HRI’s 2024 Factbook show a total attendance for 2024 as 1,241,751 - up just 0.4% from 2023.

However, the number of meetings had increased by two to 390 so the average attendance per meeting was down by 0.13%.

Pre-pandemic, in 2019, the average attendance per meeting was 3,621 — 12.1% higher than the 2024 numbers.

Irish racing has a long way to go before reaching those heights once again.

The Bigger Picture

The findings reflect broader economic pressures. Ireland’s cost-of-living crisis has made spectators more selective about attending live events.

As per the Central Statistic Office’s Consumer Price Index figures, inflation was at 0.9% in 2019, rising to 7.8% in 2022 before easing to 2.1% in 2024.

Despite those pressures, general admission to the Punchestown Festival has remained steady at €30 since 2019, suggesting that racing itself hasn’t become more expensive — fans simply have less disposable income.

What Racing Can Do

While prices have remained largely stable, the most common concern among respondents, cited by 43%, was the perceived lack of competitiveness in Irish racing.

One measure of that is average field size, which has fallen from 28.1 entries per race in 2021, a recent peak, to 22.9 in 2024, an 18.5% decline.

But who cares if fields are getting smaller if there is still competitiveness at the top? Well, trainer data may hold the answer. Many respondents cited the domination of the big names as something that needs to change.

As per HRI’s 2024 factbook, on the Flat, the number of trainers with horses rated 100+ fell from 21 in 2019 to 16 in 2024. Meanwhile, Aidan O’Brien’s stable of those horses increased from 82 to 84, while Joseph O’Brien’s rose from 18 to 29.

In National Hunt racing during the same time period, the number of trainers with hurdlers or chasers rated the same mark had dropped from 75 to 64, or 16%, while the top four trainers had around 64% of those horses in both 2019 and 2024.

That dominance is reflected in the winning records of the big trainers. Willie Mullins was the leading National Hunt trainer in 2024 with 257 wins from 856 runs, 50 more than closest rival Gordon Elliott and a massive 168 more than third place Henry de Bromhead.

On the Flat, Aidan O’Brien recorded 131 wins from 499 runs in 2024, 20 more than his son in second place and almost double third-place Ger Lyons’ total of 67.

Such concentration at the top has fuelled perceptions that racing is increasingly dominated by a handful of powerful yards. Initiatives like William Hill’s Each Way Extra Challenge Series, designed to offer financial support for smaller trainers, may help — but it remains to be seen whether they can make a meaningful dent in the competitive balance of Irish racing.

irishracing.com editor Vincent Finegan has had his say:

“It is interesting to see that the most important factor influencing attendance is now the competitiveness of the racing. The domination of a small number of big trainers in Ireland in recent years often results in uncompetitive races with odds-on favourites and this is obviously off-putting to punters.

“The cost of a day’s racing has historically been the number one deciding factor for racegoers, but that has now been overtaken by the actual quality of the racing on offer.”

Analysis: What It Suggests

The responses indicate that while price remains a concern, fans also want to see deeper and more competitive fields. Non-price factors such as entertainment, facilities, and animal welfare still register, but only among a small minority.

We have seen that pricing has changed very little since pre-pandemic levels and with more respondents citing the lack of competitiveness, the message is clear — punters want more bang for their buck.

Survey Details

The survey was conducted among readers of irishracing.com in August 2025, with 389 respondents. Participants could select multiple reasons for what would make them attend race meetings more regularly.