The Galway success story hit remarkable new heights yesterday with the biggest official attendance in Irish racing history going through the gates.

A massive 46,498 crowd ripped the record books to shreds and put last year's corresponding figure of 37,437 firmly in the shade.

There are unconfirmed reports of bigger crowds having been at race meetings in Ireland before the modern era. But there has been nothing officially to compare with yesterday's attendance - or even come close.

The records didn't stop there however. There was an all-time national record of 4,292,715 bet with the bookmakers which was almost a million up on 2004. It included the biggest single betting race ever with the 957,344 wagered on the Galway Hurdle.

There was also a new all-time Tote turnover record of €1,926,983 was set which was up over 200,000 on last year.

A new state-of-the-art West Stand will be in place for the 2007 Galway festival and it was described yesterday as "the last piece of the jigsaw" in the recent development work at the Ballybrit track.

The current West Stand will be demolished after next year's festival and will be replaced by a €20 million project which will be ready in time for 2007.

The Millennium stand, completed in 1999, a traffic underpass and a new weighroom have been added to Galway in recent years.

The course chairman, Ray Rooney, said yesterday: "This will be the last major venture that we will do. It will cost €20 million, half of which will come from a Horse Racing Ireland grant."

The project was officially launched by the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O'Donoghue yesterday.

"If we are to continue to attract new people to racing then facilities must continue to improve," he said.