If there’s one thing Irish race fans love almost as much as a winner, it’s a freebie. So, it could be time to test out whether more free-entry days are a winner in the persistent struggle to get people to go racing. At this point, there might be little to lose for some tracks.The Irish National Bookmakers Association (INBA) covered the cost of entry at the Curragh last month for Ireland’s first ever race meeting on a Good Friday. They didn’t do it for spiritual reasons. It was an attempt to boost their turnover by increasing footfall. Reviews were largely positive. Curragh officials estimated an attendance of almost 6,200.The odds are crowds won’t come close to that at HQ this weekend for the first Irish classics of 2026. Saturday sees the Tattersalls 2000 Guineas run. Sunday has the 1000 Guineas plus the Tattersalls Gold Cup. It’s top-class racing in the heart of thoroughbred country just an hour from Dublin. The popular verdict on the ground, though, is likely to be one of apathy. An official attendance of 5,652 was recorded for 2000 Guineas day a year ago. It was just over 5,000 for the Sunday. They’re stark figures for an ultra-modern spectator facility that opened to significant fanfare in 2019. The spectacular grandstand has a 13,000 capacity. Official attendances at Irish racecourses routinely include everyone working at the track on the day. Provision must be made for this fact. The substance of figures that include trainers, jockeys, stewards, media, bookmakers, stable staff and everyone else paid to be present need appropriate statistical context. It is unclear how much gate money is actually generated. There’s an element of plucking a one-string banjo in pointing out how the Curragh revamp was supposed to be the most important venture in modern Irish racing history – and how €36 million of the final €81.2 million redevelopment cost was State money. But the scale of the investment shouldn’t be allowed to become background muzak either.It even smacks of dirty pool to beat the home of flat racing by pointing to the country’s biggest National Hunt festival at Punchestown recently - and its bumper 43,572 Ladies Day attendance – in underlining the scale of the task facing a number of tracks as they try to increase public engagement. The Curragh is the most high-profile of those tracks. The 2026 Punchestown Festival attracted more than 43,000 on Ladies Day alone. Photograph: Morgan Treacy /Inpho Maybe the Good Friday date was boosted by a curiosity factor. The desperation of parents to go anywhere with kids during a holiday period can’t be underestimated. But there is other evidence of how free entry to the races can grab popular attention, at least in the short term.The Curragh did it previously on a Group One day with a Phoenix Stakes programme in 2023. Gowran has done it more regularly, linking up with commercial sponsors to some effect. Naas, too, has tried to lure more people through the gates. Increased food-and-drink sales help bridge the financial gap and registering for free tickets provides tracks with valuable data.But it can’t just be any old humdrum meeting. There must be an element of quality racing so there can be a chunky financial hit to opening the gates if a reasonable attendance was anticipated anyway. Hospitality sales would also likely take a hit at some of the bigger tracks. The biggest negative, though, is less tangible. It’s the nature of the beast to place more value in what you pay for. Freebies can quickly be taken for granted. Those at the helm of Irish racing point out the dangers of such a policy in the long term. There’s no getting away, either, from how a free-entry policy contains an admission of defeat. No other major sport would consider it.Officials at the Curragh Racecourse - and other Irish tracks - are routinely counted among the overall attendance at race meetings. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images Then again, no other major sport presents the sort of conundrums racing does. The best sporting action usually attracts the most interest. It doesn’t apply to racing here, and certainly not flat racing. The Listowel festival’s official Ladies Day crowd alone last year was almost 9,000 more than the two days of the Irish Champions Festival combined.Getting the balance right on any expanded strategic policy of free entry is tricky, but hardly impossible. Atmosphere on the ground is a vital element of racing’s appeal. Attracting new and young audiences is an important exercise in backing the sport’s future. Free entry can also serve as appreciation for existing customers. Selective use of such a ploy is worth viewing in terms of investment rather than cost. The INBA was prepared to speculate to accumulate. Racing’s big industry guns could consider the same, perhaps as part of a broader sponsorship campaign designed to promote the sport’s popular appeal rather than simply shovelling such resources into prizemoney. Just what impact it could have on a prestige date is hard to gauge, but it’s worthy of exploration. This weekend’s classic action is the sort of quality event crying out for greater public engagement. After considerable conventional promotion efforts, it must be galling for track authorities at the Curragh to admit that attendance levels there have basically stalled. But it’s surely an admission of reality. With media rights in the bag already, and the Curragh getting a hefty slice of World Pool revenue, there may be little to lose in future by expanding the freebie experiment to see if it proves a winner. Something for the Weekend Gstaad is hot favourite to become the fourth horse in five years to finish runner-up in the Newmarket Guineas and go one better in Saturday’s Curragh 2000. He finished eight lengths clear of the remainder in Newmarket. Nevertheless, three who finished behind take him on again. Thesecretadversary (3.40) has about 10 lengths to make up after finishing fifth at Newmarket. Fozzy Stack’s confidence that there won’t be a repeat is underlined by the absence of a hood. On easier ground he can exploit any chink in the favourite’s armoury. In contrast, Marvelman (3.05) has a first-time hood in the earlier Greenlands Stakes. It’s an odd move for a horse dropping back to six furlongs but the Andrew Balding horse can be very free. Sprinting pace and the headgear could help him. He is a proven Group Two winner already.