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Despite all the talk of recession, punters are still expected to gamble a whopping €40 to €50 million at this year’s Galway Races.

It’s all systems go for the Galway Races which get under way on Monday week July 28 and run until the following Sunday August 3.

The Galway Races are such an intrinsic part of the local as well as national culture, it seems like they have been taking place forever. For many people the Galway Races are the event to go to and they are looking forward to it all year long. To some the main attraction of the event is the old friends and new people you get to meet, to others it’s the atmosphere of excitement and glamour, and to others still it’s the very passion for watching horses race and perhaps engage in a little betting. Although the first Ballybrit race meeting, lasting two days, took place in 1869, a lot has changed since.

The Galway Races, to some, might just be a perfect occasion to meet up with some old friends and make new acquaintances, but others simply cannot stay away from betting some part of their income on the horses. This, tempting and exciting as it is, could lead to undesirable consequences if done without at least a basic knowledge of the game. Before you pick your potential winner, make an effort to find out about the horses, the track, and the money involved in the game.

IT’S A FACT, but a sad fact if you are a bookmaker, that no matter what a punter’s losses are, if he hears that it was a bad day for even one bookmaker, he smiles as he tells his wife the annual fib, that he lost only half what he really lost.

Leading department store Anthony Ryan’s will continue its sponsorship of the Best Dressed Lady competition this Lady’s Day, Thursday July 31, at the Galway Races.

Well the waiting is over, and the barometer race meeting of the Irish calandar has finally arrived, with €65,000 on offer to the winner of the GPT Amateur Handicap, the feature contest at 19.00. The Tony Martin trained Arc Bleu and the Richard Fahey trained Halla Sun currently vie for favouritism at around 5/1. The pair clashed in the ''Pitmans Derby'' at Newcastle when Arc Bleu got up to deny Halla Son by a head when in receipt of 8lbs, but this time the difference is 6lbs.There may not be much between the pair.

Racing in County Galway took place on a number of courses at the beginning of the 19th century... Kilconnell, Eyrecourt, Brook Lodge (near Tuam), Rahassan, Ballinasloe, Ballymoe, Dunmore, Athenry, Bermingham Hunt (run by John Dennis, Bermingham House, Tuam), and Carraroe Hunt. Only seven of these courses were extant at the dawn of the 20th century.

The highlight of the Galway Races, the Galway Plate, proved a winner of No 3 Oslot, the Paul Nicholls-trained horse ridden by Ruby Walsh and owned by stockbroking millionaire Andy Stewart.

Despite high expectations for one of the premiere events of the summer the economic downturn and the environmental downpours led to a major drop in Tote taking and attendance at this year’s Galway Races.