HORSE Racing Ireland [HRI] says it remains on track to meet the targets the racing authority set for itself in its five-year Strategic Plan.

Issued last spring, HRI’s Strategic Plan says it wants to increase the sector’s overall economic value by 22% by 2028. The aim for attendances is to see 10% growth over five years and prize money to increase 15% in the same timeframe.

This week HRI issued a set of key racing industry statistics for 2024. Approximately half of the 36 areas covered by the statistics showed gains on 2023. The increase registered in racecourse attendances and the number of horses in training were just 0.4% and 0.5% respectively.

Prize money rose by 2.6% in 2024 and is due to go up another 1.4% this year.

Asked by The Irish Field for comment, HRI’s chief executive Suzanne Eade said: “Our strategic plan carries us through to 2028 and we are on track. Our results in 2024 would have been quite different in a number of areas, including attendances, but for extremes of weather that played havoc with fixtures in the first half of the year and then greatly affected the numbers of entries and runners in the autumn months when the industry was hindered by a well-documented lack of rainfall.

“The end of year figures show that attendances are growing and overall prize money is ahead of strategic plan expectations for 2024. Growth in the numbers of fixtures will come later in the lifecycle of the plan.”

The 2024 statistics show marginal increases in the areas of prize money, racehorse ownership, the owner retention rate and the numbers of horses in training. However, total entries, total runners and average field sizes were slightly behind where they were in 2023.

Commercial sponsorship in 2024 rose by 7.9% to €6.8 million with EBF sponsorship totalling €2.9 million, up 7.4%.

Overseas winners

Irish horses continued to perform well when campaigned overseas and the prize money won by Irish-trained horses in Britain rose by over 16% to £19.4 million with a total of €9.2 million won by Irish horses in the rest of the world.

Total on-course betting, including Tote, rose to €84.1 million, an increase of 4.5%. Bookmaker betting on-course rose by 5.6% to €73.7 million.

Total Tote betting has reduced by 2.8% to €75.8 million. Betting on-course with Tote is down by the same percentage to €10.4 million while off-course betting with the Tote is 4.8% down to €57.6 million. Off-course betting receipts came to €141 million, up 37.4% on the previous year.

While for the first six months of 2024, attendance figures were 1.5% behind the corresponding period of 2023 due to a combination of bad weather, adverse ground conditions and an extraordinary number of rescheduled fixtures, the end of year figure of 1.242m is up 0.5% with stronger returns from Irish Champions Festival, the Listowel Festival, Navan Racing Festival and the Christmas festivals at Leopardstown and Limerick contributing to the growth.

One notable dispersal sale in 2023 contributed to a record figure of €231.5 million for bloodstock sales at public auction and this figure fell back to €197.8m last year on a more normal schedule of sales.

On the racing front, the total number of active owners has risen by 0.9% to 4,741, with the number of syndicates up by 6.7% and new owners up 4.1%. The owner retention rate climbed marginally to 73.8%. The ownership base in the USA has risen 12% with UK-based owners remaining static at 356.

There is also a marginal rise in the total number of horses-in-training which grew 0.4% to 10,488. Extremes of weather affected the number of entries, down 3.2% overall with flat entries down 4.7% and National Hunt entries down 1.8%. While the total number of runners was also down, by 0.9%, the number of National Hunt runners rose by 0.4% while the total number of flat runners was down by 2.3%. The average field size, based on 2,894 races in 2024 compared to 2,877 races in 2023, was down by 1.4%.

THIS weekend’s Dublin Racing Festival has been billed as a ticket-only event but organisers told The Irish Field on Friday evening that admission will be given to cash customers.

Horse Racing Ireland director Paul Dermody said: “We capped the attendance at 18,500 per day this year to ensure the best customer experience. Looking at the pre-sale figures we are very much on-course for a sell-out on Saturday but we do have capacity for walk-ups. As it stands, nobody will be turned away.”

Due to the clash with the Ireland-England rugby game, there will be fewer British voices in the crowd today. Dermody said: “We think it’s because of the higher demand for flights this weekend and the additional cost. That’s just something we will have to deal with on those years when this clash happens. But Irish racegoers have taken up a lot of those tickets.”

There are just four British-trained runners over the weekend at Leopardstown. Dermody said: “We made a concerted effort since the start of the season to attract British runners. It’s what everyone wants to see and the result is not where we want to be.”

On the subject of the Irish Champion Hurdle not having a sponsor, Dermody explained: “We had a number of short-term offers but, given the status of the race, we wanted a longer-term partner and I would hope we will be able to confirm one later this year.”