Horse Racing Ireland has got the green light from government to borrow €34 million and build a new all-weather track at Tipperary racecourse. It will be Ireland’s second all-weather facility. Its construction might encourage sceptics to ask just how much diesel €34 million gets you.
On the face of it, the logic for this development looks to boil down to Ireland’s only all-weather track in Dundalk being stuck up in the northeast of the country.
“The need for an all-weather track in the south of the country has a very strong business case,” the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine Martin Heydon recently told the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee. “Dundalk is a long way to have to go from Munster on a Friday night.”
It’s true the top of the Wee County is no hop, skip and jump from the south. But neither is it some great trek. It takes the same time to get from Cashel to Ballinrobe. Getting to Killarney in Kerry from there is only half an hour less. There’s also the matter of who’s going.
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Any impression of some mass All-Ireland final-type exodus up the M7 by Munster racing fans chomping at the bit to watch 0-70 handicaps in Dundalk is nonsense. The overwhelming majority on the road are industry professionals servicing industry fixtures that give opportunities for mostly mediocre horses servicing a betting industry which pays for media rights.
This is a sum totted by all those involved in the equation, including trainers based everywhere in the country who pass on to their owners the cost of transporting horses and the expenses of those looking after them. It’s a stretch to believe the carbon footprint of horseboxes is to the forefront of most considerations on this matter.
Mundane reality
The more mundane reality if you’re travelling a couple of hours or more to Dundalk is that it’s inconvenient. But €34 million is a lot of convenience.
There seems to be no supply-and-demand issue involved. Dundalk is set to host 41 fixtures this year. That’s not a particularly busy schedule. Wolverhampton in Britain has double that. Next year Newcastle will have close to 60 meetings on its all-weather facility. A reasonable argument can be made that Dundalk is underutilised.
A good argument can be made, too, that the horse population required to fill races at two all-weather circuits simply isn’t there. There doesn’t appear to be any massive outcry at a lack of opportunities in Dundalk.
Nevertheless, a second all-weather facility has long been a central element of HRI’s strategic outlook. After various proposals were rejected, including controversial businessman Luke Comer’s idea to build a new €100 million facility himself, HRI chose its own track in Tipperary in 2019.
It was to be finished by 2022 at a cost of €18 million. Now, it’s projected to come into action in 2027. The estimated cost has almost doubled. The money must be borrowed. The way the Curragh redevelopment costs soared suggests it’s no longshot that HRI might have to go back to the well again. It’s a big commitment in an uncertain broader financial outlook.
HRI argues a new track is necessary to expand the programme. In its latest strategic plan, it aims to have 430 fixtures in place by the end of 2028. That’s a big increase from this year’s 395 with, presumably, Tipperary expected to account for a lot of it. But events have a habit of impacting on projections.
It’s worth recalling how pre-Covid, HRI expected to get €98 million of State money by 2024. Prizemoney would be at €90 million. This year it’s less than €71 million. HRI’s latest plan expects €92.4 million of government funding by 2028. It looks a longshot considering next year’s allocation has stalled at €79.3 million.
It begs the question if trying to expand an already bloated fixture list is a wise move. A financial model based on media rights looks much more uncertain in the context of a volatile gambling sector. Churning out pictures of low-grade action for betting fodder purposes is no odds-on shot to deliver on the investment.
Maybe there’s hope in the same misplaced `build it and they will come’ ambition that was used for the Curragh. No one could argue that Irish racing’s HQ didn’t need a revamp. But if the public aren’t interested in going racing for top-class action there it’s fanciful to think winter all-weather stuff will have them streaming off the trains in Limerick Junction.
HRI officials have said there will be economic benefits to Tipperary from the new track. There is also the prospect of valuable new training facilities there. It still seems, though, that the main impetus is essentially geographic. HRI’s chief executive Suzanne Eade has helpfully pointed out how 60 per cent of trainers are based within 90 minutes of Tipperary.
Cynics will say most of the top ones are much closer than that. They might also say that when it comes to fixtures, a multi-million HRI-owned facility is in the box-seat to do well from HRI’s fixture list allocation. Feet must be shifting very uneasily 280km to the northeast where it probably really does feel a long way to Tipperary.
But if such a significant investment really is about mileage, HRI may have pumped itself a full tank of potential problems.
Something for the Weekend
Willie Mullins’ Total Recall in 2017 is the only Irish winner of Newbury’s Coral Gold Cup in the last 45 years. Mullins has four of the 10 Irish hopefuls lining up this time, topped by the Kerry National winner Spanish Harlem. An option at a big price though may be O’MOORE PARK (2.55) whose jumping at Galway last month was an improvement on last season.
The Aintree Grade One winner Murcia is the star attraction in tomorrow’s Grade Three at Fairyhouse but I’M SLIPPY (1.19) has significant potential and has race fitness on his side.
