Photo Essay: Staying on track in Thurles throughout the pandemic

Grooms washing down horses after their race, in the stable area at the back of the Thurles Race Course, on December 20. Pictures:  Neil Michael

The first thing you notice about Thurles Racecourse when you arrive at the entrance are two gunmetal grey stands.

Once you enter into the ground, you soon realise concrete steps leading from the bottom to the top of each stand are its seats.

And while the stands offer panoramic views of the historic racecourse, that’s about all they do.

On a cold day, you’d do well to wear thermals and trouser a hip flask as the wide-open sides and broad open fronts offer little protection from the elements sweeping through them.

You’ll also find none of the luxuries like fine dining, champagne bars, (actual) seats in stands or the sort of carpeted air-conditioned private suites you’ll find in places like Punchestown and Ballybrit.

Instead, Thurles has two small bars.

Legendary trainer Willie Mullins' son Patrick moments after he rode Fais Ton Chemin to second place in the Best Wishes For The Festive Season (Pro/Am) Flat Race at Thurles Race Course.

It also has a small restaurant where, apparently, patrons regularly dine on bacon and cabbage and there is also a small kiosk under the main stand which serves hot beef rolls.

So, nothing fancy.

Indeed, while bigger racecourses invested tens of millions in new, more modern stands, Thurles just didn’t.

But then the type of racegoer who regularly goes to Ireland’s only family-owned racetrack is unlikely to care too much that their surroundings are as basic as they are.

And this is because unlike a number of people who frequent its more corporate-minded racing cousins, Thurles’ loyal racing fans don’t generally go to the Tipperary track to hang out in bars.

Greeted by racecourse owner Riona Molony’s brother, Michael, at the turnstiles, or her other brother, Joe, at the main entrance gate, they go there for the racing.

While Riona runs the show, she does it with the help of her four daughters Patricia, Helen, Ann Marie and Kate.

She also relies on a small and closely-knit army of people, like foreman Richie Brennan and Andrew Purcell, who have worked at what has been dubbed Ireland’s “first all-weather track” for decades.

Other family members who work there include Riona’s brother Noel, who sells racecards, and her sister Marie and sister-in-law Josephine who work in the office.

A big day is when about 2,000 people turn up, although that hasn’t happened during the pandemic for obvious reasons.

The dress code usually requires that you be... dressed.

Willie Mullins, the most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival, with 72 winners, in the stand at Thurles Race Course.

And while big screens might be all the rage on the bigger tracks, they aren’t at Thurles.

If you miss them that much while watching from the stands because they aren’t there, good eyesight or having a decent set of binoculars might be advised.

And while on other tracks a trip to the parade ring is akin to a trek across the Andes, it’ll probably take you about a few short minutes to get there at Thurles given its relatively small size.

These days, however, only grooms, trainers and a very small contingent of people are allowed inside Thurles.

“It is bleak,” says Anne Marie Cullen, one of Riona’s daughters.

“It is very strange.

“But it has worked, and we have been very lucky to have remained open, even if it is behind closed doors.” Champion jockey Ruby Walsh, who the family know well, summed up Thurles Racecourse at the start of the pandemic in the Irish Examiner in March as “the unlikely hero in time of great uncertainty”.

This was because on Saturday, March 21, the eyes of the racing world turned firmly on Thurles.

At the time, horse racing had been shut down across Britain but was allowed to continue here, but with strict restrictions.

Thurles Race Course Manager Kate Molony Moran with the Molony Cup, at Thurles Race Course.

As a result, five jump races on the Tipperary track were broadcast on ITV to help fill a void for racegoers left by cancelled fixtures across the water.

One of those races was the 3.10pm Pierce Molony Memorial Novice Chase - named in honour of the 65-year-old former owner who died of cancer in 2015.

Since then, a framed photograph taken a few years before he died, has sat in the window of the course’s weighroom.

At the end of every meeting, Riona lifts it carefully off its wooden stand on the window ledge and carries it back to her jeep, and then back to the house they used to share that adjoins the racecourse.

They were married 40 years before he died, and during that marriage, they devoted almost their time together to the racecourse.

“I was a primary school teacher when we got married in 1975,” she recalls as she stands in the kiosk where the family sells their famous hot beef rolls.

From then on, I was involved. I kept on teaching but I loved the racecourse from day one. To me then, as it is now, it's just the excitement, the thrill, the community - just everything about it

“There are also all the great people you meet, and get to know over the years.” 

And then she says something that pretty much explains why there are no fancy stands or hospitality suites at the course.

“We've done improvements over the years,” she says.

“We have improved the track and improved some of the facilities.

“But the track was always Pierce's main thing.

“He said if you don't have the track, you don't have anything.

“So any money we had was invested in drainage and improving the ground and it all paid off because it's one the best jumping tracks in Ireland “We can race here when others can’t because of the drainage and the work that was done.” 

Trainer Liz Doyle walking a horse after a race at the back of Thurles Race Course.

The fact that they get money from TV companies who pay for the rights to film their races is a huge help, especially nowadays.

But the fact that they are a family-run business is also a factor.

“From the time our kids were small they were helping us to sweep the place and clean it, they were all involved,” she says.

“We couldn't afford cleaners back then. There was no money around.

“We were married 40 years when Pierce died, Lord have mercy on him, so over the years, all the girls have stayed involved, which is great to see.

“And the grandchildren are all interested, which is brilliant. They love it.

“They are always here helping.” 

With Covid-19 restrictions in place, the racecourse is a very different place to what it was before.

There are no children dashing about the place, there are no crowds, and you are more likely to hear an echo than a roar from either of the near-deserted stands.

Indeed, if it wasn’t for Covid, the racecourse should have been packed last Sunday with groups of revellers holding their Christmas parties.

The track has become a favoured venue on the festive circuit.

A jockey riding out from the parade ring at Thurles Race Course moments before the start of the 3.30 Best Wishes For The Festive Season (Pro/AM) Flat Race at Thurles Race Course.

A marquee is erected, bands are hired and a younger cohort of racegoers stream into Thurles now every year.

That’s all gone, for now.

Before you can get into the racecourse, you have to pass through a screening station set up in a refurbished shipping container.

Owners are forbidden from entering and only a skeleton staff is allowed on the grounds.

While jockeys would normally enter the weighing room to be weighed, that is now done outside its entrance, under the watchful eye of the late Pierce Molony.

There is a quiet, and steady symmetry to it all.

Jockeys weigh in at the start of each race, then they head to the parade ring to speak to their trainers while grooms walk their horses around them.

Order of Malta ambulances line up and enter the track and take positions.

Jockeys then mount and go out onto the track.

After each race, the jockeys dismount and queue up to be weighed again, and horses are then led out to the stables area at the back of the parade ring and walked around to cool down, and sprayed with cold water.

Trainers in the parade ring at Thurles Race Course before another race.

Over the years, the Molony family have received offers that could have seen them retire from racing but they have always turned them down.

“Racing is in our blood and we want to keep the racecourse going,” she says.

“Money isn't everything.

“We do things slowly and when we can afford it.

We have never wanted to have any big money owed to the banks or anything like that.” She adds: “I think that is one of the reasons why we have lasted. We didn't get too big for our boots, we didn't expand or take out huge loans

“This is a small intimate little place and even if I won the lottery tomorrow, I wouldn't build a big stand.

“I go to a race meeting, I don't want to sit inside.

“I want to be outside and I want to look at the horses.

“I want to have a nice hot beef roll, and I don't want to be betting on my phone.

“I want to get onto the bookies at the ring and see the craic and be involved in this, do you know what I mean?

“A lot of people go to the bigger racecourses and they don't even see a horse.

“They sit inside and watch it on the telly.

“To me, I don't care how cold it is, I wrap up well, I usually go and enjoy and have a bit of fun.” Never shy of trumpeting the food, she adds: “Our food here is absolutely excellent, our hot beef rolls are fabulous and did you know, we are famous for our bacon and cabbage?”