The story
Galway Races Summer Festival in Galway
A week-long horse racing festival at Ballybrit racecourse near Galway, first held in 1869 and expanded gradually to its current seven-day format by 1999, featuring roughly forty-nine races, a Ladies Day best-dressed and best-hat competition, and the Guinness Galway Hurdle as its richest race, with Ladies Day drawing particular crowds for its Best Dressed Lady and Best Hat competitions each summer.
Captain Wilson Lynch donated the land for the first meeting at Ballybrit racecourse on August 17, 1869, an event that drew an estimated forty thousand people even at its very first running, and the meeting has expanded steadily since, from two days in 1869 to three days by 1959, four by 1971, five by 1974, six by 1982, and a full seven-day meeting from 1999 onward.