THE FIRST steps on the road to a possible new racecourse in Ireland will be taken next week when a planning application will be lodged for an ambitious project in north Tipperary. Businessman Richard Quirke has plans to build a massive entertainment facility near Thurles which will include a five-star hotel, an entertainment centre seating 15,000 people and a new casino.
Details regarding a new racecourse for horses and a new greyhound track will also be included in the application. It is understood the proposed racecourse will be on an 800-acre site near Two Mile Borris.
The horseracing course is designed to be an all-weather, floodlit track, similar to Dundalk which opened two years ago at a cost of about €20 million and which is generally regarded as being a success.
There was no comment on the matter from Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) officials yesterday, but the provision of a new track in the Munster region has been an ambition for racing’s ruling body over the last number of years.
Quirke is a well-known figure in the gaming industry in Ireland and was the seller of the former Carlton Cinema site in Dublin’s city centre.
If the project gets a green light from planning authorities, it would result in a second all-weather Flat racing track in Ireland after Dundalk’s launch in 2007.
That project came at the height of the “Celtic Tiger” years and received a grant of €10.2 million from HRI.
In today’s very different economic situation, HRI have called a halt to their capital development fund, although it is believed they would, in theory, welcome a racecourse in the Tipperary area.
Financially, the chances of the track being built may end up being dependent on a Government review of policy in regard to casino gambling in Ireland, which is expected to be revealed towards the end of this year.
In other news, Aidan O’Brien has eight of the 26 entries remaining in the Group Three Killavullan Stakes at Leopardstown this Bank Holiday Monday after yesterday’s forfeit stage.
They include last weekend’s Dewhurst Stakes fourth Steinbeck, as well as Lord Midas, who is also an entry for Saturday’s Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster.
Also engaged in the Killavullan, a race won by subsequent classic winners Grey Swallow (2003) and Footstepsinthesand (2004), are the Dermot Weld-trained pair Emlous and Thunder Bridge, and Keredari, whose trainer, John Oxx, won the race last year with Rayeni.
Today’s home action is at Thurles where a number of star steeplechasers will get their winter campaigns under way in the two-and-three-quarter-mile hurdle, the second-last race on the card.
Schindlers Hunt, Grade One-placed at Cheltenham, Aintree and Punchestown last year, is joined by the cross country champion Garde Champetre and the triple Grade Two-winner Glenfinn Captain.
The last named, Barry Geraghty’s mount, hasn’t raced since March, but could be least inconvenienced by a return to the smaller obstacles. The high-class hurdler Whatuthink goes in the opposite direction when he makes his chasing debut in the opener and Ruby Walsh takes the mount.
