With six months until race day, tickets for the 2024 edition of the St Pats Races are now on sale. with a variety of tickets available to be purchased for attendees and punters to enjoy the day, with early bird tickets starting from $40 per person.
As of 3pm on Thursday, St Pats had recorded more than $35,000 in sales, and roughly a third of tickets have been sold in Wacky’s Bar and the Lawn Lounge, with tables in the Gary Radford Pavilion and several picnic tables also sold.
“Over the past month, we’ve been receiving a lot of emails at the office [asking] “when would packages be available, when can people book tickets?”,” St Pats Race Club President, Andrew Schmidt, told the Barrier Truth.
“It’s 90 per cent people living out of Broken Hill and of course, they want to book tickets so they can book accommodation.
“The great thing is that then gives us a very clear idea of how our ticket sales are tracking when it comes to what infrastructure we’re going to need on race day.”
Like this year’s meet, the St Pats Races will use ticketing company 123tix for its online purchases, with Mr Schmidt praising its efficiency, although there’ll still be options for those who prefer the in-person sales.
“We used a company called 123tix this year, and so prior to this year’s meeting, people just booked their tickets online, they arrive at the racetrack and they either had them on their phone or they printed out their QR codes and we just scanned them, and they went straight through,” he said.
“It’s probably been the most efficient way that we’ve had bookings ever. It just works so well. It’s so much more convenient for people that they can book online – they can book general admission, they can book memberships, they can book into the Radford Pavilion, the Lawn Lounge, Wacky’s Bar, all those areas. It works so well for us this year that we had no hesitation in deciding to keep it rolling.
“We found this year that we still have people that prefer to come in face-to face-and pay cash, so if they message or email the office and just say “I’d like to come in and book some tickets and I’d like to come and pay cash”, they can still do that.”
Mr Schmidt says despite the race being six months away, the committee is working tirelessly to make sure everything is prepared as early as possible to ensure it’s another successful event for the city.
“Our race meeting next year falls on the Saturday and the Sunday is St Patrick’s Day. That works out well for us. We’ve got a few projects planned for the racecourse which we’ll start to get on top of in the next few weeks. We want to try and get a lot of work done out there before Christmas,” he says.
The 2024 St Pats Races takes place at the Racecourse on Saturday, March 16. Online tickets can be purchased via https://www.123tix.com.au/events/40042/broken-hill-st-patricks-races-2024-outback-cup?fbc
