Founder & Editor · Last reviewed 2026-07-08
Seven days that stop the west of Ireland
For one week at the turn of late July and early August, a hill on the edge of Galway city becomes the busiest place in Irish sport. Ballybrit, six kilometres northeast of the city, fills with more than 120,000 people over seven days, and the town below it barely sleeps. The Galway Races Summer Festival is the longest fixture in the Irish calendar and one of the biggest social gatherings the country holds. It is not just a horse race meeting, it is a week-long event that draws racegoers, holidaymakers and locals into the same packed enclosures.
The racecourse, also known as Ballybrit, is a dual-code track. It stages both Flat racing and National Hunt (jumps) racing on turf, and the festival cards mix the two codes day by day. The headline events are the two great handicaps that define the week: the Galway Plate, a chase run on the Wednesday, and the Galway Hurdle, run on the Thursday. Neither is a Grade 1. Both are valuable, fiercely competitive handicaps with big fields, and they are among the hardest races in either country to call.
What gives Galway its character is the track itself. Ballybrit is a tight, undulating, right-handed circuit with a sharp, switchback feel. It climbs in the back straight, drops into a dip before the home turn, then rises again to a stiff uphill finish, one of the toughest run-ins in Britain or Ireland. The home straight is short, little more than a furlong. Horses that race handily and travel well are suited; those left with ground to make up on the run home often cannot get there in time.
Add to that a festival atmosphere with live music every day, betting rings turning over roughly a million euro a day, and a city centre that turns into one long party, and you have a meeting unlike any other. This guide walks through the whole week: when and where it runs, the day-by-day shape, the headline races and their rolls of honour, Ladies' Day, the crowds, and how to get there.
This guide covers when and where the week runs, a day-by-day guide to the cards, the headline races and their rolls of honour, Ladies' Day and the social scene, the crowds and the atmosphere, going to the festival, and answers to common questions.
When and where: the seven-day shape
The Galway Festival is a seven-day meeting that runs from the last Monday in July into the early days of August. That timing has been fixed for years, and it makes the festival a late-summer staple rather than a one-day showpiece. In 2025 the week ran from Monday 28 July to Sunday 3 August. In 2026 it is scheduled for Monday 27 July to Sunday 2 August.
A festival that grew one day at a time
The seven-day shape was not always the case. The first meeting at Ballybrit, back in 1869, was a two-day event. The festival grew slowly across the twentieth century: it was extended to three days in 1959, four days in 1971, five days in 1974, six days in 1982, and finally to its present seven days in 1999, the same year the Millennium Stand opened. So the modern week-long format is a relatively recent thing, even if the meeting itself is more than 150 years old.
Where it is
The racecourse sits in the townland of Ballybrit, just north of the N6, in the environs of Castlegar on the edge of Galway city in the Republic of Ireland. The full address is Galway Racecourse, Ballybrit, Galway, Co. Galway, with the Eircode H91 V654. It lies roughly three to six kilometres northeast of the city centre, close enough that the festival and the city feel like a single event over the week.
The course is owned and operated by the Galway Race Committee, with Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), the statutory body for the sport in the Republic, part-funding capital projects. The full picture of the track, its layout and its records is set out in our Galway: The Complete Guide. Michael Moloney has been chief executive since 2015, taking over from his father John Moloney, who managed the course from 1989 until his retirement after the 2015 festival.
How big the week is
The numbers tell you the scale. In 2025 the festival staged 53 races over seven days with a total prize fund of €2,171,000, a minimum value of €17,000 for every race and a feature race worth at least €110,000 each day. The Galway Plate and the Galway Hurdle were each worth €270,000. The 2026 schedule has been advertised at 49 races and a fund "in excess of €2 million". Across the week, the Tote turned over €5.8 million in 2025 and on-course bookmakers took more than €7.5 million. This is one of the great betting and social weeks of the Irish year.
A day-by-day guide to the week
The festival has a rhythm. The early days carry evening cards with a first race around 5:05 to 5:10pm, while the later days, including Ladies' Day and the weekend, are run as afternoon cards from around 2:00 to 2:10pm. Each day has its own feature race worth at least €110,000, and the week builds towards the two great handicaps in the middle before easing into a family-focused weekend.
Monday: opening night
The week opens on the Monday with the Connacht Hotel (Q.R.) Handicap, a Premier Handicap for amateur riders run over about two miles one furlong. Worth €110,000, it is widely called Ireland's "amateur Derby" and it sets the tone for the week. It was won in 2025 by Filey Bay, and in 2024 by Sirius, trained by Willie Mullins, who came home at 50/1.
Tuesday: the Mile and a Listed hurdle
Tuesday's feature is the Colm Quinn BMW Mile Handicap, a Premier Handicap on the Flat over about a mile and half a furlong, worth €120,000 in 2025. Mexicali Rose won it in 2024. The card also includes the Listed Colm Quinn BMW Novice Hurdle over around two miles and half a furlong, the first piece of black type of the week.
Wednesday: Plate Day
Wednesday is one of the two biggest days. The card is built around the Tote Galway Plate, the headline chase, run over 2m 6½f and worth €270,000 in 2025. It is one of the busiest and most popular days of the week, and the betting ring is at its heaviest. The 2025 Plate went to Western Fold, trained by Gordon Elliott and ridden by Danny Gilligan at 11/1.
Thursday: Ladies' Day and the Hurdle
Thursday is Ladies' Day, the most glamorous day of the festival and often the busiest. Its feature is the Guinness Galway Hurdle, the richest hurdle race in Ireland, run over two miles and worth €270,000 in 2025. The day also stages the Listed Corrib Fillies Stakes on the Flat over seven furlongs, won in 2024 by Raknah, and a graded novice chase. Friday's crowd of 26,234 was actually the single biggest day of the 2025 week, but Thursday remains the headline social occasion.
Friday: Friday's Fair Lady
Friday brings another fashion-led day, "Friday's Fair Lady", and a card headed by the Galway Blazers Handicap Chase, one of the consolation handicaps for horses that missed the cut for the Plate.
Saturday and Sunday: the weekend wind-down
Saturday is headed by the BoyleSports Galway Tribes Handicap Hurdle, a consolation handicap for those who missed the Galway Hurdle. Sunday is Family Day and Mad Hatters Day, with children admitted free with a paying adult and the Irish Stallion Farms EBF "Ahonoora" Handicap, a Premier Handicap on the Flat over seven furlongs, closing out the week. Physique won the Ahonoora in 2024.
The headline races: the Plate, the Hurdle and the rest
Two races define the Galway Festival above all others: the Galway Plate on the Wednesday and the Galway Hurdle on the Thursday. Both are big-field handicaps rather than weight-for-age championship races, which is exactly why they are so loved and so hard to win. Field sizes of 18 to 22 runners are normal, and across the 2024 week 30 different trainers had a winner. These are races where form, the draw and the track all matter, and where outsiders strike often.
The Tote Galway Plate
The Galway Plate is the headline chase, a Premier Handicap run over 2m 6½f with 14 fences across two circuits, for four-year-olds and upwards. It was established in 1869, at the very first Ballybrit meeting, and its inaugural winner was Absentee. The trip has grown over time: it was 2m5f historically, extended to 2m6f in 1992 and to its present 2m6½f in 2015. Tote Ireland has sponsored it since 2011. In 2025 it was worth €270,000, with €162,000 to the winner.
Part of the Plate's character comes from the track. The final two fences are sited very close together on the decline in the back straight, described by several sources as the closest two fences of any course in the world, and they are followed by a run-in of over two furlongs to that stiff uphill finish.
Galway Plate roll of honour (recent and notable):
| Year | Winner | Trainer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Western Fold | Gordon Elliott | Danny Gilligan, 11/1 |
| 2024 | Pinkerton | Noel Meade | Donagh Meyler, 20/1 |
| 2023 | Ash Tree Meadow | Gordon Elliott | Danny Gilligan, 13/2 |
| 2022 | Hewick | Shark Hanlon | Jordan Gainford, 16/1 |
| 2021 | Royal Rendezvous | Willie Mullins | Paul Townend, 5/1 fav |
| 2020 | Early Doors | Joseph O'Brien | Mark Walsh, 7/1, owned by JP McManus |
| 2019 | Borice | Gordon Elliott | 9/1 |
| 2018 | Clarcam | Gordon Elliott | 33/1 |
| 2017 | Balko Des Flos | Henry de Bromhead | 6/1 |
| 2016 | Lord Scoundrel | Gordon Elliott | Donagh Meyler, 10/1 |
| 2014 | Road To Riches | Noel Meade | 14/1 |
| 2008 | Oslot | Paul Nicholls | Ruby Walsh, 11/4 fav |
| 2004 & 2005 | Ansar | Dermot Weld | back-to-back |
| 1995 & 1996 | Life Of A Lord | Aidan O'Brien | Charlie Swan, owned by JP McManus |
Historically, Tipperary Boy is the most successful horse in the race, winning three times in 1899, 1901 and 1902. In the modern era Gordon Elliott is the outright leading trainer with five wins. Note the prices in that table: a 33/1 winner in 2018, 20/1 in 2024, and a long list of double-figure prices. Favourites win it rarely.
The Guinness Galway Hurdle
The Galway Hurdle is the Thursday headline and the richest hurdle race in Ireland. It is a Premier Handicap over two miles with nine flights, for four-year-olds and upwards, sponsored by Guinness and worth €270,000 in 2025. It was established in 1913, with Red Damsel the inaugural winner, and was contested over a mile and a half for its first six years.
Galway Hurdle roll of honour (recent and notable):
| Year | Winner | Trainer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Ndaawi | Gordon Elliott | Jack Kennedy, 13/2, awarded in the stewards' room |
| 2024 | Nurburgring | Joseph O'Brien | JJ Slevin, 13/2 |
| 2023 | Zarak The Brave | Willie Mullins | Paul Townend, 9/2 |
| 2022 | Tudor City | Tony Martin | L A McKenna, 22/1 |
| 2021 | Saldier | Willie Mullins | Patrick Mullins, 18/1 |
| 2020 | Aramon | Willie Mullins | Patrick Mullins, 7/1 |
| 2019 | Tudor City | Tony Martin | R M Power, 10/1 |
| 2018 | Sharjah | Willie Mullins | Patrick Mullins, 12/1 |
| 2017 | Tigris River | Joseph O'Brien | Barry Geraghty, 5/1 |
| 2016 | Clondaw Warrior | Willie Mullins | Ruby Walsh, 9/2 fav |
| 2015 | Quick Jack | Tony Martin | 9/2 |
| 2014 | Thomas Edison | Tony Martin | AP McCoy, 7/2 fav |
| 2010 | Overturn | Donald McCain | 6/1, last British-trained winner |
Willie Mullins is the record-holding trainer in the Hurdle with six wins, while Tony Martin has four. Tudor City, in 2019 and 2022, is the only dual winner since 1988. The 2025 running was settled in the stewards' room: Helvic Dream passed the post first by a head but was demoted for causing interference, handing the race to Ndaawi, a decision an IHRB Appeals Committee upheld on 13 August 2025. That win finally ended Gordon Elliott's long Hurdle drought, having previously gone 0 from 35 in the race.
The rest of the week
Beyond the Plate and Hurdle, the week is full of valuable handicaps. The Connacht Hotel Handicap (the "amateur Derby"), the Colm Quinn BMW Mile Handicap and the Ahonoora Handicap are the marquee Flat prizes, while the Galway Blazers Handicap Chase and the Galway Tribes Handicap Hurdle serve as consolation handicaps for horses that missed the cut for the big two. There is also Listed black type on the Flat through the Corrib Fillies Stakes.
A note on betting that holds true here as everywhere: backing favourites is not a profitable strategy over time. Because the starting price carries the bookmaker's margin, backing all favourites to SP produces a loss in the long run. In races as competitive and open as the Plate and Hurdle, with field sizes above 18 and double-figure-priced winners common, that is worth keeping in mind. Nothing here is advice, and no system or staking method beats the market over time. For how the markets and enclosures work across the week, see our guide to betting at Galway.
Ladies' Day and the social scene
Thursday is Ladies' Day, and for many it is the day the festival is built around. It is the most glamorous afternoon of the week, run on the same card as the Guinness Galway Hurdle, and it draws one of the biggest and best-dressed crowds of the seven days. Fashion and racing share the billing in equal measure.
Best dressed and most stylish
The fashion competitions run across the back half of the week, with "Best Dressed" and "Most Stylish" contests on Thursday and Friday. Friday carries its own fashion theme, billed as "Friday's Fair Lady". There is no strict dress code at Galway: smart-casual is the standard across the week, with racegoers dressing smarter on the big days. Ladies' Day is when the effort peaks, with hats, tailoring and colour filling the enclosures around the parade ring and the stands.
A social occasion as much as a sporting one
The Galway Festival has always been as much a social event as a sporting one. The week has a "mardi-gras" feel, with live music and DJs every day on course, and the city below carries the party on through the night. The enclosures centre on the Killanin Stand and the Millennium Stand, with bars, restaurants including the Claddagh Restaurant and a panoramic restaurant, and hospitality for around 1,300 people, traditionally seated at tables rather than in private boxes.
The numbers behind the social side are striking. Around a million euro a day passes through the betting ring during the festival, and in 2025 the Tote alone turned over €5.8 million across the week. The festival contributes a great deal to the local economy too: a UCD Smurfit study referenced by the racecourse put the figure at more than €58 million for Galway city and the surrounding region.
Sunday for families
The week ends on a different note. Sunday is Family Day and Mad Hatters Day, a deliberately relaxed close to the festival with children aged 17 and under admitted free with a paying adult. After the intensity of Plate Day and Ladies' Day in the middle of the week, the weekend softens the mood and turns the festival back towards families and casual racegoers before the gates close for another year.
The crowds and the atmosphere
The first thing to understand about the Galway Festival is the sheer number of people. This is one of Ireland's biggest sporting and social gatherings, and the crowd figures are enormous for a seven-day meeting.
How many people come
In 2025 the festival drew 125,997 racegoers over the week, up nearly 10,000 on the previous year, with Friday's crowd of 26,234 the single biggest day. The recent run of attendances tells the same story of a packed week:
- 2025: 125,997
- 2024: 116,374
- 2023: over 122,000
- 2022: over 116,000 (the first full-capacity festival after Covid)
- 2017: 137,682
- 2016: 138,909
Ladies' Day on the Thursday and Galway Plate Day on the Wednesday are traditionally the busiest, though in 2025 it was Friday that topped the daily count. Older accounts of the festival often cite crowds of 140,000 to 150,000 or more across the week, but the confirmed totals from 2022 to 2025 have sat in the 116,000 to 126,000 range.
The scale of the place
To hold those numbers, the racecourse has grown steadily. The Killanin Stand, the main west stand, opened in 2007, built in a record 44 weeks at a cost of around €22 million, with €10 million in grant aid from Horse Racing Ireland. It was opened by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and named after Lord Killanin, a Race Committee member for over 40 years. Its terrace can hold around 7,000 people, with seating for 700. The Millennium Stand, which opened in 1999 alongside the move to a seven-day festival, replaced the old Corrib Stand that was once reputed to have "the longest bar in the world".
For a sense of just how many people Ballybrit can hold, the largest single gathering ever at the venue was not a race day at all: in 1979, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass at the racecourse for an estimated 280,000 people, and was conferred the Freedom of Galway.
The feel of the week
What the bare numbers do not capture is the atmosphere. The festival has a carnival feel, with live music and DJs daily on course and the city centre turning into one long celebration each night. Pubs around the Latin Quarter, Eyre Square and out towards Salthill stay packed, and the festival feels less like a fixture you attend and more like a week the whole city gives over to racing.
Going to the festival
Galway is an easy festival to reach but a hard one to do on a whim during the big week. Plan ahead, because peak-day tickets and accommodation sell out well in advance. For what the day itself is like once you are through the gates, see A Day at Galway, and the wider Galway hub gathers every guide to the course in one place.
Getting there
By road, Ballybrit sits just off the M6/N6, around three to six kilometres northeast of Galway city centre. The M6 connects to Dublin via the M4. Approximate journey times are about 40 minutes from Shannon Airport, an hour from Ireland West Airport Knock and roughly two hours from Dublin Airport.
By rail, the nearest station is Galway's Ceannt Station in the city centre, from which the racecourse is about a 15-minute drive by bus or taxi. Oranmore station is also nearby, though there is no dedicated shuttle from there.
Festival buses are the simplest option on the big days. Bus Éireann shuttle buses run from the west side of Eyre Square, outside the Skeffington Arms (known locally as "the Skeff"). In 2025 fares were €8 single and €10 return for adults, €4 single and €5 return for children, cash only, with drop-off through the tunnel entrance within 50 yards of the course entry. Regular city routes 401 and 409 also serve the Avenue (back) entrance, though peak-time restrictions can leave you with a 15 to 20 minute walk.
Parking is free at most meetings, though there may be a fee during the summer festival. Disabled parking is available at Entrances B and C. For those arriving by air, helicopters can land at Ballybrit if booked in advance.
Tickets, enclosures and timing
The course centres on the Killanin Stand and the Millennium Stand, with bars, restaurants, Tote facilities, food trucks and hospitality suites throughout. Hospitality ranges from all-inclusive group "Festival Packages", advertised around €35 to €39 per person in recent years, up to corporate packages. Children aged 17 and under are admitted free with a paying adult.
Turnstiles open about two hours before the first race, and the racecourse recommends arriving at least an hour before racing. First-race times vary by day: the early festival days run as evening cards with a first race around 5:05 to 5:10pm, while Ladies' Day and the weekend are afternoon cards from around 2:00 to 2:10pm.
Accessibility
The course is set up for disabled racegoers. Disabled parking is at Entrance B (Blue/Green route) and Entrance C (Red route), subject to capacity. Each entrance has a pass gate alongside the turnstiles for easier access for wheelchair users and pushchairs, and lifts serve the higher levels. Accessible viewing areas are at the parade ring, just past the finishing post, and on the first floor of the Killanin Stand. Accessible toilets are on each of the Killanin Stand's four floors, on the ground floor of the Millennium Stand, near the parade ring and behind the Owners & Trainers Bar. There is a First Aid Room next to Entrance B and three defibrillators around the enclosures.
How to watch from home
In the Republic of Ireland, RTÉ televises the festival, showing a selection of races each day across RTÉ One, RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player, typically four races a day on the opening days and more later in the week, with extensive Irish-language radio coverage on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. In the UK and Ireland, Galway is a Racing TV course, all 26 Irish tracks having moved to Racing TV from 1 January 2019. Races can also be streamed through licensed bookmaker platforms to logged-in account holders and via the Racing TV subscription service.
Where to stay
Hotels close to the track and in the city include the Connacht Hotel, about five kilometres away, along with the Clayton Hotel Galway, the Galmont, the House Hotel and the Imperial. Book months ahead: during festival week, beds in and around Galway go quickly, and the big days fill up first.
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All galway guides
Galway Racecourse: The Complete Guide
Galway (Ballybrit) in full: the tight, undulating switchback right-hander, the seven-day summer festival day by day, the Galway Plate and Galway Hurdle with their winners, the records, tickets, travel, venue hire and how to visit.
Read moreThe Galway Plate: Race Guide
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