With just one hundred days to go to Ireland’s leading horse racing festival, Galway Racecourse is delighted to announced a new and exciting three-year partnership deal with the Connacht Hospitality Group for the popular Best Dressed Lady and Best Hat competitions that take place on Thursday July 28 — ‘Guinness Galway Hurdle Day’ during the seven-day Summer Festival.
This promises to be one of the biggest days in the Irish racing calendar, and an unmissable day out for fashion lovers.
The Connacht Hospitality Group will sponsor both the Best Dressed Lady competition with a €10,000 cash prize, and €3,000 to the winner of the Best Hat. Based in Galway City, the Connacht Hospitality Group is a family-run Galway business that comprises three hotels (The Connacht Hotel, Hyde Hotel and The Residence Hotel ), three bars (Hyde Bar, An Púcán and 1520 Bar ), Galway Bay Golf Resort and Active 24 Fitness. The group prides themselves on quality hospitality, friendly customer service and creating unique experiences.
The Connacht Hospitality Group is owned by the Fitzgerald family from Clarinbridge, with the support of fellow company director John Carmody and their experienced leadership team headed up by Group general Manager Wayne Neilon.
Judging the Best Dressed Lady competitions on the day is Head Judge and well-known stylist Mandy Maher who will be joined by fellow judge Kieran O’Malley Digital Marketing Manager for the Connacht Hospitality Group.
Stylefest
Mandy Maher welcomed the news of the return of the Ladies Day stylefest.
“I’m honoured, overwhelmed and super excited to be Head Judge at this year’s Best Dressed Lady at the Galway Races. I can’t wait to see all the glamour and style back at Ballybrit,” she said.
Commenting on the new sponsorship deal, Chief Executive of Galway Racecourse Michael Moloney said, this is by far the best Ladies Day prize yet.
“Having carried out a lot of research and getting feedback from our customers, we wanted to come back this Summer with a massive attractive prize, and what better reward than cash.
“This Summer we’re really excited to welcome back our race goers and have been working to ensure that the Ladies Day experience for our guests will be better than ever,” he added.
“Ladies Day is our most stylish day of the festival and we’ve made welcomed changes to the day itself, including lengthening the time you have to enter the competition, moving the completion time for judging from 1pm to 3pm to give people a chance to make the way to the course and relax and enjoy themselves, while also introducing a pre-registration for ladies who might not get spotted on the day but still want to enter the competition. They can now enter the morning of Ladies Day online via our website, upload their outfit details and a photograph,” added Mr Moloney.
“There are lots of welcome improvements that we hope our racegoers will enjoy. We’re delighted to have the team from the Connacht Hospitality Group on board. They’re innovative, focused on the customer experience and have their finger on the pulse. We couldn’t have asked for a better partner for this event. We’re thrilled. Lots to look forward to. Watch this space,” he concluded.
Commenting on their new three-year agreement, Eveanna Ryan, Director and Sales and Marketing for the Connacht Hospitality Group said, for the team at the Connacht Hospitality Group this is such an exciting partnership.
“The Connacht Hotel has always been synonymous with the Monday racing for a number of years with our continued sponsorship of the QR handicap, but this partnership will give us the opportunity to showcase the entire group.
“We could not ask for a better team to work with than Michael, Sinéad and the team at the Galway Races and we are really looking forward to this year’s festival”.
Widley regarded as the highlight of the Summer Season in Ireland, the Galway Races takes place from Monday July 25 to SundayJuly 31, and looks forward to welcoming its race goers back to Ballybrit for one amazing week that offers you great horse racing, entertainment, fashion, reunions with friends and family and an electric fun atmosphere that continues to draw people from all over the world.
To book your ticket to this year’s Galway Races check out www.galwayraces.com
