2019 Punchestown Festival: The key facts and figures you may not know

The Punchestown Festival takes centre stage between Tuesday, April 30 and Saturday, May 4 and Tom Thurgood lists the key facts and figures ahead of the five-day bonanza.

The Punchestown Festival gets under way on Tuesday and the highlight of the Irish racing calendar is getting bigger each year. It promises to be action-packed once again as these impressive numbers suggest:

Punchestown serves up more races and more Grade One contests than the Cheltenham Festival and the Grand National Festival at Aintree and 556 horses ran at the meeting last year. No less than 59 individual Grade One winners competed at last year’s Punchestown Festival.

This is a meeting big on both quality and quantity.

Willie Mullins looks set to be crowned champion in Ireland once again and the master trainer loves Punchestown. Mullins has been top trainer at the Festival no less than 16 times and fired in a whopping 18 winners at last year’s meeting as his team wrested the trainers’ championship from Gordon Elliott in a thrilling week.

Mullins will have another formidable team lined up this time and plenty will be partnered by Ruby Walsh, 14-times top jockey at the Punchestown Festival.

Just six favourites (15 per cent) came up trumps for punters last year and more speculative punts at big prices can yield handsome rewards. Draconien was a 25-1 winner of the Grade One Herald Champion Novice Hurdle under Noel Fehily and Footpad was the only odds-on favourite at the Festival last year, priced up at 2-5.

Adare Manor Opportunity Final winner Prince Garyantle was 25-1 and the concluding Punchestown Charity Race went to a 50-1 shot. The average SP of a winner at last year’s Punchestown Festival was nearly 10-1.

While the two slugged it out in a memorable trainer’s title battle last year, Punchestown offers opportunity for those operating at a less rarefied level than the titans of Irish jump racing.

From the 39 races, 23 different jockeys rode winners at last year’s Punchestown Festival and 26 different owners/syndicates enjoyed winners. As well as championship races, connections have a strong complement of handicaps to target while specialist races such as those over the banks and the Bishopscourt Cup for the Kildare farmers feature on a diverse programme.

Last year’s overall attendance of 127,489 was an increase on 2017 and 130,000 spectators are expected this time across the five days. This month has shown a 9 per cent increase in pre-ticket sales from Ireland, while hospitality bookings were up by 5 per cent during March.

Most encouragingly for Punchestown and Irish racing, over half of advance ticket sales last year were from first-time visitors to the Festival and over half the attendance was aged 44 or younger. 49 per cent of the overall attendance was female.

The direct economic value of the Punchestown Festival is estimated at around €64m, according to independent research by Maynooth University. In Kildare and surrounding areas, €25.3m was spent outside the racecourse on entertainment, food, drink and accommodation last year.

Visitors from the UK and further afield increasing flock to Punchestown and over 20,000 visits last year were from overseas. Nearly three quarters of visitors stayed in County Kildare, with the average stay lasting three nights and 10% of visitors enjoying the sights for six nights or more.

The collective appetite is keen at the Punchestown Festival and over 420 catering staff - including 60 chefs - will be on standby during this year’s extravaganza.

No less than 125,000 pints and nearly 10,000 measures of Irish whiskey will be served at Punchestown, with 60,000 cups of coffee ordered in the racecourse bars. That’s along with 7,500 Irish Fillet steaks, approaching 50,000 handmade sandwiches and three tonnes of potatoes and vegetables!

In addition to title sponsors including BoyleSports, Coral and Ladbrokes, 21 sponsors are locally based in County Kildare for the 39 races during the Punchestown Festival.

Rooted in the community and approaching the 200th anniversary of the inaugural race meeting at Punchestown, the home of Irish jumps racing is aligned with local people and business and this is surely a key ingredient behind its recent success.