GALWAY RACECOURSE
Course: Galway
🎫 Ticket & value: £90 Hospitality Galway Festival
👀 Track view: 5/5
🍔 Food: 4/5
🍺 Guinness: 5/5
⭕️ Parade Ring: 3/5
🏇 Runners and riders: 3/5
🎉 Atmosphere: 3/5
⭐️ Overall Experience: 4/5
👍🏻 Best for: Track View 👀
Hosted and organised by the Closutton Racing Club (which we’re members of) we enjoyed an excellent days hospitality on the Sunday of Galway’s Racing Festival. Despite the typical Irish summer weather, Galway racecourses provided excellent food, fantastic track views and some competitive racing throughout the day. With a mixed card of both jumps and flat racing, Galway’s racing on the Sunday provided a unique and wonderful opportunity to see both racing codes together.
Experiencing hospitality, we were based at the top of the main stand which had a balcony overlooking the entire racecourse. It provided a spectacular view of every inch of the track, allowing punters to see the undulating course whilst the Irish Sea appeared in the background. The panoramic view from the hospitality restaurant enables racegoers to experience racing from a Birds Eye view of the track due to the huge size of the stand. A rarity in horse racing, the track view at Galway from this suite is truly exceptional.
Looking at the food, Galway provided an excellent 3 course meal with the hospitality package. With a choice of two starters we opted for the Smoked Burren Salmon Blini with Irish beetroot, pickled onion gel, arugula leaves, elderflower & crabapple syrup. For the main course, there were three options to choose from, meat, fish and veggie all served with a selection of vegetables and potatoes. We thought it would be rude to not go for the slow braised feather blade of Irish beef with a sweet horseradish potato cake & traditional Yorkshire pudding. Desert was a chocolate and orange bombe with grand marnier cream and chocolate sand. Of course finishing off with freshly brewed tea / coffee with after dinner mints. We really experienced a fantastic meal at the racecourse. The quality, presentation and execution of the cooking were great, not to mention a lot of Irish ingredients being used. The highlight of the meal was the main course, with the succulent meat and a beautifully made yorkshire pudding alongside some well seasoned vegetables. The pudding was light and fluffy but rich in flavour, with staff being wonderfully attentive throughout the afternoon.
Complimenting the food was fantastic Guinness, which is what you’d hope for at a top Irish racecourse. The staff were well trained and poured the Guinness perfectly every time, letting it settle no matter how busy the bar was. The Guinness was cold, creamy and full of Irish charm and each pint was as good as the next, especially in glasses instead of plastic cups. You were also allowed to take your pint out onto the balcony to drink whilst watching each race.
The parade ring at Galway provides a good view of the horses, which is large in size and is clearly able to hold big races with lots of runners. Despite this, the tiered level there isn’t quite big enough and with good crowds at the races it becomes quite hard to see. Additionally, you’re unable to walk around the whole parade ring and when the horses head out to the track, they leave the parade ring and can’t be followed until they appear on the track itself which is a shame. Finally, the parade ring is situated at the top end of the racecourse, which meant a long walk to it from the suite and with busier crowds would probably cause more difficulty to access.
For this Sunday at Galway festival, the runners and riders at the racecourse were of a good quality but could’ve been better. It was great to see flat jockeys like Colin Keane and Wayne Lordan lineup alongside jumps jockeys Jack Kennedy and Paul Townend on the same card in competitive racing throughout the day. The handicap races on the card provided decent racing throughout the day that kept punters engaged trying to back winners at good prices.
The atmosphere at Galway races was decent despite the miserable weather, especially up in hospitality where people were enthusiastic and keen racegoers. There was a buzz around the tote throughout the 8 card raceday and people on the balcony were cheering home winners each and every race. Unfortunately because of the weather, down at the parade ring and stand side the crowds weren’t quite as good as they could’ve been, which impacted the atmosphere trackside. A slight shame for the last day of the festival.
Overall, the hospitality experience at Galway races provided a fantastic days racing, with a good atmosphere, amazing food and Guinness and one of the best track views you’ll see at any racecourse. We couldn’t recommend this option enough with brilliant and attentive staff complimenting the days racing and course itself. We look forward to returning! We were lucky enough to meet Willie Mullins for a photo opportunity and a quick chat whilst watching one of the flat races from the suite and this really put the icing on the cake for what was a lovely afternoon.
Top class Guinness.
Perfect pints being served at Galway Racecourse Hospitality.