Galway Festival: Irish Punters set to bet €70 million

Bookmakers William Hill say around €70 million will be gambled by Irish punters on this year’s Galway Festival. That figure equates to an average of €10 million on each of the seven days of the festival.

The two feature races at Galway are the Tote Galway Plate on Wednesday and the Guinness Galway Hurdle on Thursday, and Irish bookies are expecting to see high turnover on both races.

Majestic Concorde, trained by the ‘King of Ballybrit’ – Dermot Weld, is the 6-1 favourite for the Galway Hurdle, whilst British raider Overturn is the current 7-1 market leader for the Galway Hurdle.

Hills are also betting on the Rooney Auctioneer-sponsored top jockey prizes, and the colour of the dress worn by the ‘best dressed lady’ – which will be presented on Thursday (Ladies Day).

“Galway is the biggest betting event on the Irish racing calendar, and bookies are bracing themselves for another epic battle with the punters down in Ballybrit,” said William Hill’s Irish spokesman Tony Kenny.

“Galway is known as the punters graveyard. However, it’ll be the bookies who’ll look like the walking dead if Dermot Weld has another bumper festival.“

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