A proposal to put an end to more than half a century of racing at Tralee's Ballybeggan Park and to have the land zoned for development is causing a public outcry in the town.
It has also prompted a deep division in the racecourse company's board of directors.
The Tralee Chamber of Commerce, members of the Rose of Tralee Festival, town councillors and other leading local figures are dismayed at the idea.
Mr Eddie Barrett, chairman of the Racecourse Supporters' Club at Ballybeggan, and a former president of the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute, said rumours that the land had a value of €20 million were just that - rumours - and that it would fetch nowhere near that price.
It was "reprehensible" that any board, formed by a past generation to promote sport in Tralee, should even consider the idea of closing the racecourse and selling the land, he said.
Horse-racing in Tralee went back some 250 years, and the race course at Ballybeggan was the culmination of that tradition.
Closing it would sound the death knell of the Rose of Tralee, which was intimately associated with racing at Ballybeggan, Mr Barrett said. The county coursing club, a shareholder in the Ballybeggan Park Company, is also vehemently opposed.
Mr Liam Brassil, secretary of the County Kerry Coursing Club, and a director of the company, has described the proposal to close the racecourse as "akin to suggesting that we sell the town park".
The first of a number of public meetings on the issue will take place next Monday night.
The plan was put forward recently to the Draft Kerry County Development Plan.
Two years ago a golf course at Ballybeggan was closed. It had become a drain on the firm's resources, the company said.
The submission noted that racing was losing money in Tralee.
The company's finances, in addition to the Horse Racing Ireland strategic plan 2003-2007, would "seem to indicate that closure of the course is almost inevitable", as early as two years' time, it continued.
A number of Irish racecourses previously located in rural areas were now situated on the outskirts of large towns, said the submission, drawn up by architects O'Sullivan Campbell and consultants Power & Associates.
"On strictly commercial lines there is a case for the reduction in the number of racecourses in Ireland," it continued. Ultimately there would be one sustainable race course in Kerry, at Listowel.
The company has already made approaches to developers and it has asked for flexibility with regard to zoning.
Last week, a majority of directors voted to close racing, from the end of the racing year, subject to the approval by shareholders at the a.g.m. in August.