Irish racing's ruling body believe they are on course for a best attendance total on Ireland's racecourses.

Attendance levels for the first half of 2006 are almost two per cent up compared to 2005, which ended with a record 1.43 million people paying in.

Horse Racing Ireland reported yesterday that 559,046 people have attended meetings in the first half of this year and the result has been a 4.7 per cent in on-course betting with bookmakers to almost €82 million.

Also up is the Tote betting turnover to 21.4 million. But much of the 600,000 increase can be traced to co-mingling from the Attheraces channel and the French Tote which provided an additional €500,000.

The Punchestown festival in April saw a 10 per cent attendance increase to 85,000.