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HOT TO TROT

Fuelled by Rachael Blackmore’s historic winning of the Grand National, Irish horse racing is enjoying a huge upsurge in interest among families and young people. Horse Racing Ireland’s Vicki Donlon and Tim Husbands tell Stuart Clark how Leopardstown has been been changing its spots, and the plans they have for their three other courses around the country.

Ireland has never been short of sporting heroines but this truly is a golden age with Katie Taylor, Kellie Harrington and Rachael Blackmore (pictured) all making front and back page headlines.

The first female jockey to win the Grand National in its 182-year history, Blackmore’s Aintree heroics reflect the rude health of an Irish racing industry, which generates 29,000 jobs and an annual turnover of €2.4 billion.

“Rachael’s a phenomenal ambassador for the sport and so humble,” enthuses Vicki Donlon, the Commercial Manager of Horse Racing Ireland who own the Leopardstown, Navan, Fairyhouse and Tipperary courses.

“It transcends out of sport – she’s a household name now,” Vicki resumes. “Rachael’s broken so many glass ceilings and is an inspiration for women in not just racing but all spheres of life. It’s happening everywhere in sport: if you can’t see it, you can’t do it.”

According to the latest Red C National Survey on Racing, public interest in the sport here has gone up from 23% to 28% in a year.

“It shows there’s a major appetite among Irish people of all ages to be involved in our sport and our industry,” says Leopardstown Chief Executive, Tim Husbands MBE. “Racing may have been an older male preserve but not anymore. During April we ran our first Spin 1038 Student Race Day in three years, and had 9,000 turn up,” he reports. “We were told, ‘They’re not going to behave’ but they were an absolute joy to be around and so engaged as well. I’d say it was evenly split between males and females, as it was in February when over the two days of the Dublin Racing Festival we had 25,000 people here. We’re getting more and more families who, unlike a match, love the fact that it’s a whole day out.”

Indeed, Horse Racing Ireland have been working overtime

“The main goal for us this year is to put on a wide variety of concerts that appeal to people who don’t come to horse racing.”

to make their courses as family-friendly as possible.

“The investment we’ve made recently into both outdoor and indoor children’s activities at Leopardstown is second to none,” Tim resumes. “Ted Walsh, an extremely learned trainer and social commentator, came up to me and said, ‘That’s the best playground I can ever remember seeing on a racecourse.’ We have a special family day at the beginning of June to officially launch that side of things.”

The new playground is part of a €20 million refurbishment programme, which has transformed Leopardstown into of Europe’s most modern racing facilities.

“We’ve put in a new building for the jockeys and trainers with the most up to date medical facilities, which has been very well-received, and also have new bars and other hospitality areas, which make Leopardstown even more family-friendly,” Tim says.

“We’re very research-led and listen to what people want from their day out at Leopardstown,” Vicki notes. “Just as much as the racing, it’s the social element and the atmosphere, which with the food, the entertainment and everything else that’s going on, is very festival-like.”

Adding to the festival feel are the four Bulmers Secret Orchard Live At Leopardstown gigs, which are an optional extra at their summer meets, and this year include the hit-making likes of the Lightning Seeds, Gavin James and Razorlight

“Previously we had the stage up at the main entrance area, but we’re going to re-position it to the back of the new grandstand because it’ll give us more space and help with access for people arriving or leaving,” Tim reveals. “The main goal for us this year is to put on a wide variety of concerts that appeal to people who don’t come to horse racing. They might go, ‘Oh, I wouldn’t mind seeing that artist. Oh, it’s outdoors and there’s a bit of racing going on as well.’ We can build on the experience and get people to come back for races again.”

The gigs are just one example of how Horse Racing Ireland are working with sponsors to offer a better customer experience.

“The relationship between Bulmers and Leopardstown, now as Secret Orchard, is a long-term one which has developed and expanded,” Vicki explains. “On our own, there’s only so much we can do, so we thought, ‘How can we work with our existing partners and new partners?’ We’ve refreshed how we look at our commercial strategy as well and, for the first time in Irish racing, packaged our sponsorship assets across the four HRI racecourses to offer broader, deeper partnership opportunities. We’ve identified six themes that we would like to attract primary partners to. One of those is entertainment, so we therefore talked to Bulmers who will bring a programme of events across the calendar to not only Leopardstown, but also Navan, Fairyhouse and Tipperary.”

Leopardstown will be staging twenty-three top quality race meets this year, which leaves Tim with roughly 330 other days to fill. “Covid has given us the opportunity to press the reset button and look at our business model, which can’t be sustained by racing alone,” he concludes. “We’re about to do a significant refurbishment of the Leopardstown Pavilion, which today is hosting the Cyber Expo & Conference. A lot of organisations are looking for venues that are close to Dublin with great parking and easy access from other parts of the country and we tick all of those boxes. The potential for further expansion of what we do here at Leopardstown is huge.”

“Covid has given us the opportunity to press the reset button and look at our business model, which can’t be sustained by racing alone.”

• This summer’s Bulmers Secret Orchard Live At Leopardstown gigs include Lightning Seeds (June 16); Gavin James (July 7); and Razorlight (July 21). leopardstown.com