THOUSANDS EN ROUTE TO BALLYBRIT

Date Published: 30-Jul-2012

Crowds are on route to Ballybrit for the start of the seven day Galway races summer festival in the next hour.

Racecourse management scheduled an earlier start time of 4pm this year in order to accommodate television coverage of the Olympics.

The event, one of the country's sporting and social highlights of the summer calendar, is expected to attract more than 150 thousand visitors to Galway this week.

The seven day festival is worth in excess of €60 million to the local economy and high attendance figures are expected on Thursday for the popular Ladies Day and the Guinness Galway Hurdle.

While the weather for the rest of the week is mixed racecourse manager John Maloney says today's weather and track conditions are perfect to open the festival.