Galway Bay fm newsroom - There was a slight drop in attendance and tote betting on the final day of the Galway Racing Festival at Ballybrit yesterday.
Overall, attendance and tote were down across the week - while the bookmakers enjoyed a significant increase in turnover compared to last year.
Despite challenging weather conditions, ten thousand people passed through the turnstiles yesterday, a slight drop of almost 500 on the figure for 2018.
The decrease was reflected across the week - with final attendance figures for the 2019 Galway Racing Festival standing at just over 129 thousand.
That compares with close to 133 thousand people passing through the gates at Ballybrit during the 2018 event.
Tote betting was also down this year - standing at €4.23m as of yesterday evening, a drop of over one million on the figure taken last year.
However, it's been a good year for the bookmakers as the festival celebrated it's 150th birthday, with figures up considerably across the week.
Bookies turnover finished at €6.8m - an increase of €460 thousand on the figure for last year.
The big winner of yesterday's feature race - the Irish Stallion Farms EBF 'Abonoora' Handicap - was 'Laughifuwant' trained by Gerard Keane and ridden by Seamie Heffernan.
Photo - Paul Townend awarded the 'Leading National Hunt Jockey' at this Summer's Galway Races, via Galway Races Twitter.
