DOWN ROYAL FUTURE IS IN THE BALANCE

DOWN ROYAL’S future appears uncertain after conflicting statements were released by the track’s current management team and its owners yesterday.

The Down Royal Corporation of Horse Breeders, who operate the racecourse, announced that they will cease operations at the end of the year. They have been operating under a lease — which is due to conclude on December 31.

However, the owners — Dublin-based Merrion Property Group, who purchased the site in 2005 — released a statement of their own shortly afterwards, insisting that their current plan very much includes a racing future at the current Down Royal site.

The Down Royal Corporation of Horse Breeders chairman Jim Nicholson said he hopes to find a new site suitable to stage the 12 annual race meetings. ‘We are facing new opportunities, and there is every likelihood that Down Royal will find a new home.’

However, a spokesman for the Merrion Group said: ‘We have always stressed our determination to assume the day-to-day operational management of Down Royal, with horse racing at its centre.’

Down Royal was named Irish Racecourse of the Year in 2017 and is due to stage the biggest meeting in its calendar next month, with the JNWine.com Champion Chase on November 3 boasting Grade One status.

Denis Egan, chief executive of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, confirmed that any change in management at the track would require a new licence to race.

Egan confirmed that the body would meet with both parties ‘in the coming days.’