{"id":277788,"date":"2026-02-03T02:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T02:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/277788\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T02:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T02:04:14","slug":"leopardstown-success-shows-dublin-racing-festival-is-galloping-past-cheltenham-on-value-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/277788\/","title":{"rendered":"Leopardstown success shows Dublin Racing Festival is galloping past Cheltenham on value | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael O\u2019Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, had two reasons to be cheerful after the Irish Champion Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival (DRF) at Leopardstown on Sunday. His seven-year-old mare, Brighterdaysahead, had just won the feature race<\/a> and she was cheered back to the winner\u2019s enclosure by a sellout crowd that included several thousand visiting racegoers from Britain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dublin Racing Festival has been a great success and certainly it\u2019s the first time you\u2019ve seen a lot of English people coming over for the racing,\u201d O\u2019Leary said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great festival in its own right and they\u2019re all very welcome. I hope they flew Ryanair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since his airline has nearly two-thirds of the market for flights between the UK and Ireland it was more of a certainty than a hope. For decades, the Prix de l\u2019Arc de Triomphe, in Paris in early October, was British racegoers\u2019 big weekend abroad and reckoned to be the second-biggest annual exodus of British fans for a sporting event, with only the Le Mans 24-hour race drawing more. Less than a decade into its existence, the DRF is coming up fast on the Arc\u2019s inside.<\/p>\n

Before its launch in 2018 as a two-day weekend meeting, the Irish Gold Cup and Irish Champion Hurdle were staged on Sundays, a couple of weeks apart, in late January and early February.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever\u2019s idea it was to have a Dublin Racing Festival, it\u2019s an absolute masterstroke,\u201d said Mark Clayton, Leopardstown\u2019s new chief executive. \u201cMore than half of our races will be Grade Ones and, for me, this is where legends are born, with how things are now with Irish bloodstock dominating on both sides of the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a clear depth to the quality and that\u2019s a big part of the reason why Brits are coming \u2013 that and the value that\u2019s on offer. The weekend tickets went on sale for \u20ac75 [\u00a365] so you can come to a major city, get great hospitality and two quality days of racing for \u20ac75.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clayton\u2019s estimate a few days beforehand was that \u201cnearly 30% of the crowd will be over from the UK, so around six thousand people\u201d. Value was a word that came up time and again in the packed enclosures on Sunday, as British fans explained what had drawn them to Dublin and, in some cases, driven them away from Cheltenham\u2019s big festival meeting in March.<\/p>\n

Cheltenham has had an alarming slide in crowd numbers<\/a> over the past three seasons, losing nearly a quarter of its attendance since 2022, and there were plenty of punters here who see the DRF not as an addition to an annual trip to the Cotswolds, but an alternative.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my second time here,\u201d said Phil, one of a party of nine from Birmingham. \u201cI\u2019ve stopped going to Cheltenham, it\u2019s got so expensive. The tickets here are cheaper, accommodation\u2019s not too expensive and the beer is even a bit cheaper, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simon Boxcer, the organiser of an 11-strong group from Southend, was similarly impressed by the DRF experience. \u201cI love the place, it\u2019s so welcoming and the racing is brilliant,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a box at Cheltenham for all four days for entertaining clients, but I prefer it here. It was \u20ac75 for the weekend, we all flew Ryanair from Stansted and when I changed my flight to go back on Monday night [after the Saturday card was postponed for 48 hours], it cost \u00a320. Where are you going to get value like that in England?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Kennedy after winning with Brighterdaysahead. Photograph: Morgan Treacy\/INPHO\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

As Clayton points out, Dublin\u2019s festival has some intrinsic advantages over Cheltenham as a sporting destination. \u201cCheltenham is the home of jump racing and I love the festival,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have challenges we don\u2019t face, a big part of it around accommodation. It\u2019s in the Cotswolds and a relatively small spa town against the metropolis that is a capital city like Dublin. Chuck into that Michael O\u2019Leary\u2019s generosity in his pricing and flights across the water are very cheap, as little as \u00a315 single depending on when you fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the plus points of Leopardstown\u2019s metropolitan location was evident on Saturday when the 7am postponement of the opening-day<\/a> card due to waterlogging left thousands at a loose end in the self-proclaimed pub capital of the world. Leopardstown\u2019s loss was Temple Bar\u2019s gain and while many were booked to fly home after Sunday\u2019s meeting Boxcer was far from alone in staying put for the rescheduled Gold Cup card.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideGreg Wood’s Tuesday tipsShow<\/p>\n

Carlisle 1.30 It\u2019s Top 2.00 Della Casa Lunga 2.35 Severana 3.05 Lady In The Park 3.35 Smart Decision 4.04 Uptown Harry 4.34 Irish Goodbye<\/p>\n

Taunton 1.40 Crest Of Stars 2.12 Grand Vendetta 2.45 Beauty In The Park 3.15 Phoenix Risen 3.45 Bucksy Des Epeires (nb) 4.15 Palawan Du Mazet 4.45 Ourbrowneyedgirl<\/p>\n

Wolverhampton 5.30 How\u2019s The Guvnor (nap) 6.00 Many A Star 6.30 Lovethiswayagain 7.00 Skycutter 7.30 Eupator 8.00 Flash Rascal 8.30 Thanh Nam<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

As Willie Mullins\u2019s Fact To File recorded a decisive success in Ireland\u2019s most prestigious chase on Monday, 48 hours later than planned, the ninth running of the DRF had demonstrated not just its qualities, but also its resilience. Many of the travelling fans will be back next year for an event that remains on a steep upward curve.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome [British fans] will be looking for an alternative [to Cheltenham] and some will be attending both,\u201d Clayton said. \u201cBut the value is the message and it\u2019s hitting home with the British audience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael O\u2019Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, had two reasons to be cheerful after the Irish Champion Hurdle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-277788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}