Tramore Racecourse renews its food links

Ray Ryan looks ahead to Tramore Racing Festival bringing 20,000 race fans to the sunny South-East and generate €3m for the local economy.   

One of the country’s longest-established racecourses is set to renew historic links with farmers and the food they produce.

The four-day Tramore Racing Festival — beginning on August 11 — can trace its hoof prints back some 230 years to the days when the Long Strand from which the seaside holiday town takes its name was used as a track. Racegoers had the added bonus of weekly races being held on the beach for horses owned and often ridden by farmers.