Racing for fun. Whose fun?

After the Film Fleadh and the Arts Festival, July finishes off with the Galway Races. University staff is entitled to two afternoons off during this last week of July. To "go and see the Races", which basically means (as far as I understood it): Getting a fancy hat, dressing up, seeing fancy hats and dressed up people, getting drunk and/or puked on (yes, I was told so by an Irish colleague), betting and... Am I missing something important here?
Yeah right, the "Mad Hatters competition", the "Best Dressed Person Competition", "Friday's Fair Lady competition" and the "Ladbrokes Red Day" (another fashion competition - you have to wear red). But there was something else...

Oooooh, of course, the horses! How could I forget that... Well, maybe because they are hardly mentioned on the homepage of the Races. Which I find strange for a web-site about the biggest HORSE race event in town and one of the most famous in the country. It seems, that the animals, running for entertainment, are just worth a side note.
How could they ever compete with fancy hats and beer!?