The Galway Races start on Monday and the total attendance over the seven days is expected to reach 120,000, although of course the weather will have a significant impact on the crowd figures.

Wet weather has been held chiefly responsible for a dip in racecourse attendances during the first half of the year.

Revealing that there had been a 1.5% drop in racegoer numbers from January to June, Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) pointed to a similar drop in the number of races staged, primarily due to cancellations caused by bad weather.

To be fair, many more race meetings had to be rescheduled – typically staged a week or two later – and those fixtures never attract as many people as they would have done had they gone ahead on the original date.

On the plus side, attendances at key dates including Leopardstown’s Dublin Racing Festival, Irish Grand National day at Fairyhouse and Irish Derby day at the Curragh were all up on last year.

Taking this into account, and the fact there have been strong attendances reported at recent ‘summer holiday’ meetings around the country, Galway has every chance of seeing an increase on last year’s numbers.

Finding winners at Galway is notoriously tricky, although some research indicates that you would be in the money over the past five years if you backed favourites in the flat races and avoided them over jumps.

Willie Mullins is traditionally the top trainer of the week with close to 10 winners but some others to watch, based on recent form, include Ado McGuinness, Noel Meade and Ross O’Sullivan.

Emmet Mullins is likely to have a few secret weapons tucked away with Galway in mind, though his winners rarely start at big prices these days.

You can buy a general ‘flexi’ admission ticket for Galway for just €30 online now and use it any day of the week. Walk-ups will be charged €35. It’s good value by any comparison.

Finding the cash for a day at the races is one thing. Having a spare two grand a month to pay training fees for a racehorse is another.

The HRI statistics show there has been a drop of between 2% and 2.5% in the number of horses in training so far this year.

Almost 500 new racehorse owners came into the sport during the past six months, but the fall in the number of horses in training suggests that a greater number of owners have left racing.

Betting turnover figures also slipped back following a recent period of growth. Total Tote betting fell by 5% and bookmaker betting dipped by 2.5%.

The cooling in bloodstock prices is also reflected in the statistics, which show turnover at public auctions down 4.3%.

A giveaway Budget this autumn would probably help bloodstock prices and also encourage members of the public to go racing during the winter months.