RACING: The chairman and vice-chairman of Punchestown have resigned in protest at Horse Racing Ireland's proposed rescue plan for the troubled racecourse.

Nick Bullman and John Ross accused HRI of failing to "bite the bullet" regarding the debt problems at Punchestown and said their rescue plan makes "no business sense". In a hard-hitting statement, Bullman said he and Ross had not been informed of the HRI plan before it was officially announced on Tuesday.

Racing's ruling body have proposed "significant" finance for a new joint venture company that would divide the Punchestown companies 50-50 between HRI and the Kildare Hunt Club until the debts have been cleared. The properties could then revert totally to the KHC. Bullman's statement yesterday said: "The vice-chairman and I worked hard to put together sensible proposals, together with HRI, that would have ensured the long term viability of racing and business at Punchestown.

"This would have meant a 50-50 joint venture company with substantially reduced and sustainable financing commitments. However, that recommendation has been rejected in favour of an alternative HRI proposed deal." The statement added that as a result, a deeper crisis is a long odds-on prospect and declared: "We are resigning because we cannot support a deal which compounds the errors made last year by the Irish Horseracing Authority which made a further significant investment in grants and loans. HRI are now insisting on the same proven formula for failure."

Bullman has been a controversial figure in the year he has been chairman at the Co Kildare track and last evening he described his period in charge as "a thankless task". He said: "Funding the debt at Punchestown is costing over €6,000 per week and that will rise to €9,000 under the HRI plan. It just makes no sense.

"Our proposal was that HRI and other creditors would write off some of the debt, the Kildare Hunt Club would sell some land and we would all work together to try and work this out.

"If HRI follow their plan, Punchestown will have sufficient cash to keep going for a while but it will probably end up in HRI owning the track. Then it will be a question of their funding and how long they can fund a losing operation."

The HRI chief executive Brian Kavanagh said it was quite possible that they could end up owning Punchestown if the KHC are unable, or don't want to, reclaim the 50 per cent taken by HRI under the proposed debt clearing plan. However, he dismissed any suggestion of the rescue plan being the same as others before.

"It's a novel offer. A joint venture with a racecourse has never been done before. It's very different and the Kildare Hunt Club can reclaim ownership if they are able to do so," said Kavanagh who estimated Punchestown's debts at €7.7 million.

Kildare Hunt Club is expected to give its verdict on the HRI proposal in the next six weeks.