When did horse racing get so popular with teens and young people?

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

I dropped DH, DH's friend and DD off to Leopardstown earlier and there were absolutely massive numbers of older teens and young 20s walking in. When I was a teen none of us had any interest in going to the races. Although we did occasionally go to the nightclub there (I can't remember the name) which was only very young adults and creepy older men from memory.

I'm guessing that there might be some behaviour problems because they stopped selling tickets for teens online and they can only be bought at the door by an adult, possibly to ensure the most of them at least arrive with a responsible adult. DH was going to buy a ticket for DD and DH's friend was going to pose as uncle to DD's two friends to make it look like a family outing. It must have worked as I didn't need to go back to pick up DD.

I don’t think that it’s the horse racing itself which is popular - it’s the day drinking and getting all dressed up. DD refuses to attend even though it’s heavily promoted to students these days. Animal cruelty aside, she says it’s all a bit classless and I tend to agree with her!

She enjoyed herself, so that was good. She said there were a lot of young people outside asking adults to bring them in as there were only two kids allowed per adult. She didn't bet but DH made a profit.