IT was a shame that in the aftermath of so much thrilling racing, that the conversation after Saturday’s racing at Leopardstown was as much about the poor service offered to paying customers as the racing.

This of course was as the track greeted a potential full house for the first time in two years, and on the back of the late change in plans, having been forced to go behind closed doors on Christmas Eve due to rising Covid cases and a need to isolate among staff.

Both among patrons at the track and on social media in the evening, a huge amount of annoyance was vented. A selection of comments are below.

Many did return to say things were much better come Sunday, the need to do better acknowledged by operations manager Jane Hedley in interviews on Monday.

But, even allowing for the strained conditions that we are still operating under, you think it might all have been avoided to some degree.

Staff shortages were the main excuse given, with the rugby – always on this day also – taking some of the agency bar staff. The annoyance though was that there were weeks to prepare, bookings taken, numbers known.

For the last two months it had to have been expected this landmark jumping meeting would be in front of crowds and that there was a big British contingent intending to travel. Excuses must come with accountability.

In the wider picture, it was interesting to ponder afterwards, reviewing the RTÉ coverage, comments by jockey Paul Townend after winning on Chacun Pour Soi, in his post-race interview.

“I didn’t think when the crowds weren’t here I missed it that much, I would drive in and out, but when you have a winner it’s nice to get a clap back in.”

There is a very relevant point in there. Because racing continued behind closed doors, races run, prize money won, media money still there, have many in racing forgotten the importance of the crowds and the public appeal of the sport? After all, where would we be without a substantial handout of public money?

Why is Rich Ricci engaged if not for a touch of public adulation? The boys O’Reilly and Breslin were back, “waiting two years for this”, leading in a winner.

And that was nothing to the public arena that the winner’s enclosure became after Honeysuckle returned.

That the crowds had dropped by almost three-quarters for the next race showed the public ‘pull’ of the mare and her rider.

What the lockdown and restrictions have also left us with is increasing demand for getting what we want – now.

Many of us have become so used to service to the door with quality ready-made meals delivered.

Though everyone is glad to be back to ‘normal’, standing in long queues is less appealing. We book online, we don’t need to queue to buy a ticket. Tap, go.

The queue across the stand entrance to the only ATM was long from very early on Saturday. We should not yet assume racegoers are a cashless group.

Yes, staff are scare all over the service industry. But this was the big return. The attendance on Saturday was young and male – ideal you would think for growing the appeal of the sport, much better than you would get at a flat summer meeting. You wouldn’t want to have brought a half-hearted convert to racing on Saturday and say ‘this is it’.

In her Racing Post interview early this week new HRI CEO Suzanne Eade said: “We need to attract more sponsors, and try and look at sponsors from outside the industry more, and create long-term partnerships. We need to bounce back now and be very visible, be an attractive place for people to do business with, whether that is sponsorship, getting people attending the races or keeping horses in training here.”

Hopefully this will serve as a lesson going forward to all racecourses not to take the public attendance for granted as the aftermath of Covid hits us in the pockets.