Flat racing on track for 12-month season

Dundalk racecourse opening: Brian O'Connor gets John Oxx's view on Dundalk's all-weather track

Dundalk racecourse opening: Brian O'Connorgets John Oxx's view on Dundalk's all-weather track

It's obvious something out of the ordinary is happening when John Oxx starts reaching for superlatives. Unlike some of his more excitable colleagues in the profession of training racehorses, Oxx is the sort of lucid and sober judge who would make a reassuring presence on the bench. So when he delivers a verdict on the Dundalk all-weather racecourse that includes phrases such as "highly significant" and "the future", not to mention "no negatives", then the powers-that-be at Ireland's newest track can feel pretty confident they're on to a winner.

Already some others have described tomorrow's official opening of the €38 million project as a step in to a brave new world. Except there's good reason to believe it's not so much brave as simply a first step into an inevitable new racing world. And that may well be in the truly global sense.

"In a way we could be looking at the future here," Oxx says, the prophetic words delivered without a hint of over-exuberance. "You only have to look at what's happening in America with these polytrack surfaces. I thought it would take 20 years to get to where they are in the US right now in terms of getting rid of their traditional dirt courses. But they've done it in five. There has been a huge increase in installation and I would say it is unstoppable.

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"Some breeders in the States have been negative about polytrack because they realise the surface doesn't suit the traditional dirt breed. They will have to change. It might take 10 years but I believe you will have turf and polytrack pedigrees coming to the fore. From what I hear from trainers in England, turf form translates pretty well to the all-weather, much better than it does to dirt.

"So the possibilities are huge. Polytrack would look to be ideal for somewhere like Australia as well. In the near future there is going to be more and more of this surface and it is high time we had one in this country," Oxx adds.

It is indeed not hard to see the international possibilities, and not too far down the road either. If America is well on the way to replacing the traditional unforgiving dirt tracks that can take a huge toll on horses in terms of injury, then a whole new ball game of world competition on a "neutral" surface opens up.

Already the likes of Del Mar and Arlington, both top-class tracks in the US, have switched to polytrack and despite some criticism that dirt form isn't translating to it, there are no plans to go back. For internationalists, this is pretty exciting stuff.

Old debates about the merits of European turf horses versus their American dirt counterparts may soon be redundant. Form lines between continents could be much more valid. Markets might open up hugely and the world really would become a much smaller place in terms of one horse passing a small red lollipop before another.

All of which is the big picture. The more nitty-gritty details that have gone into Dundalk will demand attention right up until the stalls open at 2.30pm tomorrow.

This week already, a dispute over bookies' pitches reached a "war-of-words" level between the course management and the bookmakers' association. Disquiet among those of the jumping fraternity resentful at a lack of opportunities - especially during winter months - tends to be more muted but it still remains. However, the Dundalk authorities are hardly likely to blink now having gone through so much already.

"As they say in farming circles, it has been a calf born with great difficulty," quips one of the directors, Colm McCourt. He's hardly exaggerating.

Original blueprints for the new track were drawn up 14 years ago, long before the old Dundalk closed down in 2001. However, when the sport's ruling body, Horse Racing Ireland, decided the country needed an all-weather track, the new Dundalk had to fight off competition from other tracks, as well as the impression that HRI were not exactly jumping up and down with excitement at the idea of an all-weather, floodlit course being built there anyway.

Their original hope was to find a surface that could accommodate hurdle racing but that proved to be impossible, although national hunt trainers are keen that Dundalk might accommodate them to some extent.

"Hopefully they will be able to fit in maidens for young national hunt horses, maybe cater for jump horses once in a while," says the Co Limerick-based trainer Michael Hourigan.

"The track is there for the flat boys but I would hope it will take some of the pressure off us as well, say during the spring especially. If they took away all those flat races from the likes of Ballinrobe and Sligo, it would be a help. Let the flat boys get on with it in Dundalk, take flat racing out of the country tracks and give us more Kilbeggans," Hourigan adds.

That could be an outside bet but already the new course has altered the traditional parameters of the flat season and it might only be the beginning.

"I don't think people have come to terms with the significance of this," Oxx says. "Up to now, the flat season here has run for only seven months, which from a business point of view is crazy. We're keeping horses for 12 months and in only seven of those have they a chance of running. There are only four or five extra meetings next year but they mean a gradual extension of the season. It will take time but eventually there will have to be a 12-month season here."

As with most things in racing, that is a prospect that will raise the hackles of some sections of the sport. Even the very idea of all-weather racing is enough to provoke some into painting a picture of lowly Wolverhampton where bad horses run for bad prize money to keep the bad off-course bookmakers in business.

"That would do the image of all-weather racing no good and it certainly doesn't seem to be HRI policy," says Oxx. "It appears there will be a more normal spectrum of racing at Dundalk, just as there is at Leopardstown, Gowran or anywhere else. I see absolutely no negatives about this."

Up to 7,000 people are expected to squeeze in tomorrow. In time, they might be able to claim they were in at the start of something rather special.

Polytrack is the creation of Englishman Martin Collins and is generally regarded as being the "kindest" surface for horses to race on.

"It's a perfect surface. It is like good, fast turf, but with a bounce. It's ideal for most flat horses," is the verdict of Curragh trainer John Oxx.

The synthetic surface has a high shock absorption rate and a low elasticity repulsion rate which helps lower injury rates.

It is a mixture of sand, synthetic fibres, recycled rubber coated material with "microcrystalline wax".

It is installed by removing the original surface, installing an extensive drainage system and covering it with crushed rock. A layer of porous macadam is then put in place and covered by six inches of the synthetic surface.

Del Mar, Arlington, in the US, and Woodbine in Canada are among the North American tracks that have installed it and there is a proposal that all five of the major Californian tracks will have polytrack in place by the end of this year.

However, there has been criticism in some quarters with the new surface accused of providing "mutant racing" compared to the traditional dirt tracks.