A tumble by jockey Barry Geraghty and a run on race cards marked the opening of the Galway Race Festival at Ballybrit this evening.
Such was the volume of people arriving through the turnstiles that the race cards were sold out within the first half hour.
Attendance at last year's festival fell by 18 per cent on the previous year, but racecourse manager John Moloney was confident that this year's seven-day event would hold its own. Local businesses are hoping that the festival will generate €60 million in the Galway city and county area.
Ireland rugby fly-half Ronan O'Gara and winger Tommy Bowe were among a number of sports stars marking the opening stage, along with Galway hurlers Donal Barry and Ger Farragher.
They took to the parade ring after the first race, which was won by the Dermot Weld-trained Force of Habit. During the race, jockey Barry Geraghty on Cabernet Sauvignon took a tumble.
Gardaí have put in a new traffic management plan, due to the completion of the M6 motorway, and Mill Street headquarters confirmed today that it had "sufficient resources" to monitor any illicit activity, ranging from pickpocketing to prostitution rings.
Under the new traffic plan, visitors arriving from the M6 should follow the red route for the tunnel entrance, blue route for the avenue entrance (which requires leaving the motorway at exit 19 at Oranmore) or the green route for the Tuam road entrance on the N17.
