Record crowds and wins are anticipated at this year's summer race festival in Galway, with its organisers promising €1.5 million in prize money.
In spite of general anxiety about the tourist season, Galway city is as smug as ever.
The film fleadh opened last night, the arts festival starts on Monday and the race committee is confident that its party will be "the best ever".
It is expecting 200,000 people or more to stream out to Ballybrit over the seven days from July 29th.
The two leading races, the Hewlett Packard Galway Plate and the Guinness Galway Hurdle, involve €150,000 in prize money, the largest sums for national hunt racing during the summer season.
Mr Ray Rooney, senior steward of the Turf Club, said last night the Galway track was a "flagship" for all the race courses in the country. He was speaking at a press preview held in association with Galway Chamber of Commerce.
Galway's attraction has always been that one doesn't have to be a three-card trick man or an Ansbacher client to get lucky.There is a guaranteed jackpot of €70,000 on the Wednesday and Thursday of the festival, with a minimum of €40,000 on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, and €30,000 on Saturday and Sunday.
Last year, the new underpass for vehicles was the talking point, and this year a new €1 million pedestrian underpass has been prepared. It will allow "free-flow access" to the meeting, say organisers.
They have also upgraded tote facilities and there will be additional parking for cars.
Nor is there any need to rush out to the newsagents for race cards. If you have access to a computer the card is available on the race festival's new website (www.galwayraces.com).
The website also gives details of race results, the track and offers video footage and news of the "best-dressed person".
The internet link will give owners, trainers, jockeys and punters access to real-time information, provided by Irish Racing Services, on entries, withdrawals, overnight declarations and results.
Mr John Coyle, the race committee's chairman, said last night it was highly appropriate that the Galway races should be the first meeting in Ireland to introduce such a facility as the city was "in at the very birth of Ireland's technology boom with the establishment of the Digital plant here in 1973".
Digital is now part of the new Hewlett Packard, which has sponsored the website.
Formerly Compaq, Hewlett Packard is the subject of a review of its Irish operations and there has been some concern among some 800 employees in Galway over the past week.
However, serious talk on this and other matters will not be welcomed by the many members of Cabinet who come to "mingle with the masses" or stay in hospitality tents during the festival.
