Irish racing made a new convert yesterday in the person of the US ambassador to Ireland, Thomas L Foley, who made his first outing to Leopardstown for the festival meeting.
The ambassador was a guest of the main sponsor of the day, the Durkan Group, and he confessed to being "greatly taken" by the whole concept of an Irish race meeting as he had never attended one before.
"I have no doubt I will be coming back again because it is a great day out. It's good fun," he said, as he helped Bill Durkan, who heads the building group, present the main prize of the day, the €100,000 cheque for winning the Durkan New Homes Novice Steeplechase.
That went to the Dessie Hughes trained Schindlers Hunt which is owned by the Byrne clan from Tullow, Co Carlow, made up of nine siblings called the Slayneyville syndicate.
Their cheers echoed up the fog-smothered Three Rock mountain and lifted and injected great excitement into a day which had been dampened by miserable weather with rain and fog.
"We are absolutely delighted, there will be some celebrations around Tullow tonight," said Joe Byrne, who speaks for the rest - Pat, John, Aidan, Catherine, Ger, Bernard, Michael and Laurence.
"This is our third win with this boy and we will run him once here again and then it's off to Cheltenham," added Joe, whose family group also own Hardy Eustace, who will be making the trip with his stablemate.
He said the only one of the family not at Leopardstown yesterday was the mother of the clan who was, according to all in sundry, at home saying novenas and watching the race on television.
While politicians were thin on the ground among the 18,100 punters who attended, there were a smattering of celebrities, top of the list being Bono and the man who is soon to give him his honorary knighthood, the British ambassador, David Reddaway.
The Edge was also there and there was a sighting of EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy.
With Mr Durkan, from Bohola, Co Mayo, were a number of his brothers, Pat, Dan, Tony, and their wives and children.
The official attendance figures for the day of 18,100 was just 321 down on last year's figure but the amount spent on the Tote was up by nearly €6,000.
The official figures for betting with the bookmakers was also up from €1.4 million last year to €1.5 million this year.
The festival continues today.