Mixed reaction to Dundalk’s floodlit all-weather jumps course plan

Dundalk’s plans to build a

€3.5 million floodlit, jumps all-weather course, possibly opening in 2016, appear to have attracted mixed early notices with some racing professionals querying whether the horse capacity is in Ireland to make such a move necessary.

The proposed new facility at Dundalk is something of a hybrid with an undersoil-heated grass surface envisaged on two new straights and the current polytrack all-weather surface on the flat course used on the bends. Obstacles will be placed on the straights.

Track authorities have said proposals have been submitted to the local town council, seeking permission to extend the course which has been open since 2007, and officials at Horse Racing Ireland and the Turf Club have been consulted about the plans.

"It will be turf on both straights, a special design that will give excellent drainage, and the undersoil heating will mean it will be an all-weather facility. We're totally confident it can work. It's designed for good ground horses and it will allow those horses have a programme, instead of what can happen now with trainers and owners having to say in September or October that they'll wait until the spring to run their horse again," said Dundalk's chief executive Jim Martin yesterday.

He said that issues will have to be sorted out in terms of funding, and also fixtures, a point alluded to by some observers who point to current problems with small fields, even on the back of a mild winter so far, and on the back of investment which has seen the capacity at a number of tracks extended in recent years.

Below capacity
One of those tracks is Fairyhouse and Peter Roe, manager at the Co Meath course, said yesterday his track is already not getting the numbers of runners it could comfortably cope with.

“We are below capacity and that’s even with the winter being as good as it is. Our new inside track has been very well received by jockeys and trainers and it’s offering lovely consistent yielding ground. But even with that, we could easily stage more meetings here, and if they come up, we would look to snap up as many as we could.

“You look at a track like Naas as well who’ve extended and I’m sure they could take more. Twelve months ago, if you’d told me about the Dundalk idea, I’d have been very positive, but you’d have to wonder now if there are enough runners about to make it worthwhile. If you give a trainer a choice between running on consistent yielding ground, or an all-weather surface, most of them will choose to run on consistent yielding ground,” he said.

Jim Martin though stressed yesterday that horses which require cut in the ground are not the target for any new facility at Dundalk.

“Soft ground horses won’t be coming here. But there are many horses that like really good ground, National Hunt horses like Pique Sous and Harchibald that have won on the Polytrack in the past. Our proposal will give them opportunities. And when you get into the winter, and there are problems with frost or rain elsewhere, that won’t be an issue here,” he said. “When we started our winter season programme on the flat, there were people who wondered if the horses were around. It hasn’t been a problem.”

Horse Racing Ireland's director of racing, Jason Morris, stressed yesterday the Dundalk proposals are at an early stage. "Discussions are very much in their infancy and it would be premature to comment too much until the board (of HRI) has examined everything fully," he said.

Dundalk's winter flat season continues this evening and the dual-purpose horse, Alpha And Omega, could be an appropriate winner in the finale. A winner over hurdles at Cork and Naas, Alpha And Omega endured a nightmare passage on his last start under the lights and finished out of the money. He still looks on an attractive mark of 47 in the second division of the mile and a half handicap however and can reward trainer Charles Coakley's long trip from Co Kerry this time.