€100m pot to upgrade four Irish racetracks
OVER €100million is to be spent on major rebuilding projects at the Curragh and Leopardstown as well as upgrades for Naas and Sligo. The work will be done under the Capital Development scheme supervised by Horse Racing Ireland.
While the lion’s share of publicprivate funds will go towards a complete overhaul of the outdated Curragh enclosures, €20m is earmarked for extensive revamping of Leopardstown during a five-year project there.
Yesterday’s announcement by HRI of an extra €12m towards the complete refurbishment at the capital’s sole surviving racetrack means primary works will be commencing early in 2016 in addition to the unveiling of already-enhanced facilities in time for next month’s Christmas Festival.
The Foxrock venue is thus to undergo a proper, extensive facelift with the emphasis mphasis on customer requirements for enhanced access and entertainment, bringing them m closer to the action and providing a permanent marquee-style pavilion.
Racing’s professionals are not being forgotten either as the existing weighroom area incorporating ating the jockeys’ changing room and the separate medical centre are all to be incorporated in a futuristic new building.
Racegoers can look forward to their creature comforts remaining a priority where the extensive works at Leopardstown and later at the Curragh are concerned, while more minor improvements are set to go ahead without undue delay at Naas, where the old stand beside the parade ring will be replaced, and in Sligo for 2016.
Navan deservedly has shared in HRI’s increased spend of late with its patrons at the heart of welcome enhancements such as the provision of overhead TV sets in the stands to allow better overall coverage of racing, plus a longoverdue upgrade of the various Tote outlets. Happily there was a decent attendance at the Meath venue f or Sunday’s Ladbrokes Troytown Handicap Chase meeting which saw the latest riding sensation, Jack Kennedy, grab the headlines with a sparkling maiden treble over jumps at odds of 147/1 on behalf of Gordon Ell i ot’ s yard. The 16year-old from Dingle, who regularly took high rank on the pony racing circuit, has been a revelation since joining Gordon early this year. He was making it seven winners in just a week after Riverside City landed a grief- stricken renewal of the traditional Navan feature before Prince Of Scars then prevailed in a three-way bobbing finish to the Jackpot finale.
Kennedy’s feat was a heartwarming advertisement for giving youth a chance to shine in this demanding sport and tended to leave the splendid debut of hot- pot Douvan over the larger obstacles somewhat in the shade.
Nevertheless it was quite a pleasing follow-up for Douvan’s connections to the previous afternoon’s perhaps less- convincing return to the fray by Vautour at Ascot when managing to contain the persistent challenge of a clearly fitter Ptit Zig.
Likely to be without the services of an injury-prone Annie Power for the first half of the season at least, Willie Mullins, Ruby Walsh and the Ricci family will have welcomed the Ascot and Navan successes for these high-class French imports after Faugheen’s defeat by Nichols Canyon at Punchestown.
Wicklow Brave, which was a closing third to that pair of higher-rated stable companions in the Morgiana Hurdle at the Kildare track, could give that formline a timely boost when tackling the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle next Saturday.
Equally effective on the flat as over timber, Wicklow Brave and Henry de Bromhead’s Identity Thief, which took Grade Two honours at Down Royal on his seasonal return, were supplemented yesterday for the Newcastle test. Mullins could also opt to saddle Arctic Fire which scored in Navan’s Lismullen Hurdle first time back too.
€20 million will go to upgrade Dublin’s only track at Leopardstown