And they’re off . . . well, maybe not. The annual exodus of the Irish to the Cheltenham festival looks like it may be a trickle this year as credit-crunched racing fans swap their binoculars for a television remote.

Thousands of Irish horse-racing enthusiasts are likely to be forced to give the festival a miss, with the numbers set to travel down by as much as 45%, according to some specialist tour operators.

The four-day Cheltenham event is Britain’s biggest National Hunt racing festival, and pits the best of Irish and English bloodstock against each other over 25 races. The festival, which begins on March 10, usually attracts Ireland’s rich and famous, as well as thousands of ordinary customers who save all year for the trip.

Last year an estimated 250,000 people attended the festival, with Irish fans accounting for 15,000 of those visitors. Irish enthusiasts are generally regarded as key to the success of the €70m event, wagering about half the estimated €780m of bets laid and helping to drink 20,000 bottles of champagne and 210,000 pints of Guinness.

This year, however, tour operators are reporting a significant fall in bookings while many of those travelling are planning to spend less time there than before.

Joe Tully, the owner of the Carlow-based Tully’s Travel, one of the biggest carriers of racegoers to English meetings, said: “There’s been an obvious downturn. Last year we brought over about 1,500 people, but this year we’re bringing between 800 and 900. Even those who are going are only staying one or two nights as opposed to three or four.”

Tully said hoteliers in the Cheltenham area have been forced to drop a condition that customers must book a minimum of four nights during festival week.

“We’re not expecting any increase in the numbers travelling over between now and the festival, because people are just being far more conservative,” Tully said. “The corporate end has been hit hard because executives feel they can’t be seen to be travelling over to Cheltenham having asked employees to take pay cuts.”

Walter Greacen of Leopardstown Tours said his business was down 30%. “We normally take about 100 people over but that’s down this year, and we don’t expect it to pick up either,” he said.

Cheltenham has long been the gathering place for the elite of the Irish corporate world. However, now closing time has been called on the boom years, the party “looks like it’s coming to an end”, said Tully.

While top Irish racing figures and horse owners such as JP McManus and Michael O’Leary will still be making the trip, corporate bookings have dropped by at least 15% as businesses book fewer tents, boxes, private helicopters and restaurant tables.

“Companies are watching their budgets these days,” said Andy Clifton, Cheltenham’s communications manager.

Hotels and guesthouses in the area have reported a drop in numbers. Jayne Lillywhite, the co-owner of the Cheltenham Townhouse, said: “We’ve had quite a change in the numbers of people we’re expecting from Ireland this year. A lot of the regulars are just not coming.

“We get a high proportion of Irish people staying with us, and we’re finding it a lot harder to fill the guesthouse. We still have a couple of rooms free, whereas in previous years we’d be filled by September.”

Lillywhite said some Irish guests who had booked early pulled out as soon as they were asked for a deposit. At the Cheltenham Guest House, the owner John Hopwood said only 60 Irish people had made a booking, compared with 300 in previous years.

John O’Donoghue, the ceann comhairle and a longtime racing fan, is giving Cheltenham a miss this year. A spokesman said he would be needed in the Dail during the period and had missed out on the 2008 festival for the same reason.

Charlie McCreevy’s European Union office did not respond to queries on the commissioner’s festival plans. McCreevy was criticised by Brussels colleagues in 2007 when he missed official business to travel to Cheltenham. He responded by saying he had gone to the event for 30 years and would continue to do so.

Despite the number of negative reports, Clifton was hopeful the eventual drop in Irish numbers will be in the order of 10% rather than the 45% feared.

David Williams, a spokesman for Ladbrokes, the bookmaker, said the Irish statistics may reflect a general drop in the numbers travelling to the festival. “I’m not sure if it’s just an Irish thing or a Cheltenham thing,” he said. “From what I know, the racecourse hasn’t sold quite as many tickets as it did last year.”

Close to 230,000 spectators are expected to attend the four-day event, bringing in gate receipts worth more than ¤10m to the authorities.

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