THERE has been an unmistakable splash of colour and spike in volume across multiple meetings in Ireland over recent weeks. Yes, student raceday season has been in full swing. The third-level sector was rewarded with some smashing weather for their annual taste of the racing product.

Healthy attendances tell you that there is still very much a demand for these fixtures among students. And why wouldn’t there be an appetite? The social positives around a day at the races is something that has absolutely been successfully leaned into elsewhere.

For example, across last year’s Spring Carnival week at Flemington down under, 45% of general admission ticket buyers were under the age of 35. Additionally, at the time, half of the previous 5,000 people who joined as members of the Victoria Racing Club were under 30.

Now, it’s very much up for debate as to how much enthusiasm for the actual sport that Irish student racegoers really take from attending these racedays. It’s hard to imagine we’re cultivating future dedicated racing fans in the process. Nevertheless, as we head into a future where racing’s social licence will likely come under further scrutiny, having racing’s ‘floating voters’ emerge with at least a positive social experience of a day at the races is better than if they have no opinion on our world at all.

If we are out to provide a strong offering on these racedays, there are markers that ought to be hit.

Excellent crowd

Having popped in and out to Limerick’s packed-out student raceday last week, it’s clear that there were plenty of facilities and entertainment options across the track. Music was advertised on every floor of the grandstand, a big top and VIP tent were in operation, and DJs were in full flow in a tent near the parade ring during the afternoon. There was a cracking atmosphere on site.

That said, I spoke to students who told me about paying €49 for a ticket to the meeting (or €45 at an early-bird rate). When a track is charging close to what would currently get you into the two days of the Dublin Racing Festival (weekend ticket currently €60), it’s only right that you should be getting a good offering in terms of amenities - especially given the quality of racing is low-key at a fixture like Limerick’s card last week.

There was one basic thing that stood out as being missing at the meeting, however. Having gone out to the hill beside the grandstand to watch the first race, it seemed like a real missed opportunity not to have a big screen in action in front of the stands. Being able to hear the commentary wasn’t entirely straightforward either over the noise of the crowd.

A racing industry figure at the Limerick fixture also indicated to The Irish Field that there were no televisions in a number of the student marquees and that the music did not stop for the races.

Whatever about tried-and-tested racing fans coming prepared to fixtures, there is absolutely no way that the average student racegoer turned up to the meeting with binoculars to be able to watch the races. That meant that a monster crowd of around 14,000, who all paid a strong fee to get in the gate, were effectively left with little chance of properly following their horse around from start to finish in any race.

Unless they gave up watching the race outdoors where the atmosphere was best, they got a decent view of the horses coming up the straight and that was effectively it.

Simple requirement

In 2025, at any Irish race meeting, ensuring that each racegoer can identify their horse from start to finish must be a fundamental offering once anyone pays through the turnstiles. Simple as.

Instead, when you do not have a big screen in operation, you make infrequent racegoers face a trade-off. Do they give up watching most of the race to experience the sight of the horses flashing by them in the straight, or do they go inside to watch the race from start to finish on a television screen without seeing any horse in the flesh? That shouldn’t be a decision they have to make. It should be standard practice to have a big screen at all tracks.

Even the smaller but effective mobile screens have been well utilised at different courses – and these are not expensive to roll out. They add significantly to the raceday experience. To go a step further, on cards like student racedays, the big screens ought to include a graphic in the top corner that flags up clearly how many laps there are to go in National Hunt races. That might help avoid the premature celebrations for novice racegoers as horses go by the stands for the first time with another lap (or two) to race!

A separate graphic with the number of jumps left in the race would certainly be beneficial too. We see this employed in television coverage on different platforms, so we’re not talking about something that’s impossible to implement.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t by any means a Limerick-only issue. I have been racing at Grade 1 tracks in Ireland and, without having binoculars with me, had to rely on streaming a race on my phone once horses have gone down the back away from the stands.

Some racing fans who no longer attend fixtures as often nowadays, suggest that they see more of the action while sat at home watching the television coverage, than they would if on track. When you attend a fixture that doesn’t have a big screen in operation, it’s hard to argue with that way of thinking.

If students are bringing their share of colour, cash, noise and atmosphere to what would otherwise be low-key fixtures in a racing quality sense, the least we can do for them is allow them to see the action from start to finish.

WINNERS for smaller operations are always to be welcomed, and there was a timely success at Tramore on Monday evening for Midleton, Co Cork trainer Pat Healy.

A victory with 12-year-old Ta Se Rua at 33/1 in the Gaultier Hunters Chase marked a first win for the trainer since 2002. When looking up that success more than two decades ago at the Listowel Harvest Festival in the aftermath of Ta Se Rua’s win, one element caught the eye.

It was just a two-runner beginners’ chase that the Pat Crowley-ridden Ebony Flyer struck in for Healy, but the winning prize money came to €14,525, as per Horse Racing Ireland’s website. The two horses split a pot of €17,500, with no other runner in the line-up and prize money divided in that manner at the time.

That sum isn’t enormous, but it is still considerably more than a beginners’ chase winner could ever expect in Ireland in nowadays, and that doesn’t seem right.

As per Proform, there were just four beginners’ chases here last year where the winner collected €10,000 or more, compared to 15 different races of that type in 2019. The same database indicates that only once since 2012 - a four-finisher affair at Galway in October 2015 - has the winner of a beginners’ taken home more than €12,000 in Ireland.

Yes, the prize money division structure is different now compared to two runners splitting the pot in 2002, but that was still a €17,500 race. According to the newest provisional summary for Irish National Hunt racing, there are 35 beginners’ chases scheduled between May 5th and August 29th. None are worth more than the 2002 race at Listowel. There’s a pair of €17,000 contests at the Galway Festival and two €15,000 races (one at Kilbeggan and the other at Killarney), but of the remaining 31 beginners’ chases this summer, 28 will be run for either €11,000 or €11,500.

It is a little depressing that we can’t muster up much better funds in this jurisdiction 23 years on from that Listowel example.