Horse sense?

Suggestions Irish horseracing would benefit by consolidating the number of tracks around the country has caused heated debate within the sport. Declan Colley canvassed a number of racing experts.

IT is said that change is the single thing that people, as a rule, resist most. Yet, it is an irony that the one constant in everyone’s lives is change. However, when someone suggests radical change of any kind, it is inevitable that polarisation of opinions occurs and, here in Ireland, that truism is particularly applicable.

Take, for example, when Jim Bolger suggested — in an interview in this newspaper — that Irish racing authorities consider the future of some courses. He said: “It’s a nonsense having three tracks in Kerry and I don’t think even proud Kerry people might argue against the fact that their needs and those of the industry would be better served by one state-of-the-art track in the county. The people down there think I’m picking on them, but the same situation exists in the southeast, where you have Tramore, Wexford and Gowran Park, and it is the same in Tipperary, where it could easily be asked if three tracks are necessary.

“I think we have to knock heads together on issues like these. The likes of Croke Park and, hopefully, the new Curragh, will set the standards by which we will judge these things and I have to think that if we have a situation where racecourses create an atmosphere which endears few customers, then we have to ask why.”

Bolger’s remarks caused something of a kerfuffle within racing and particularly in those areas he mentioned. But his views have both supporters and detractors.

Punchestown general manager and recently appointed Bord Na gCon chairman Dick O’Sullivan, reckons that Bolger’s idea of consolidating forces in Kerry, in particular, is a good one.

As a Kerryman and director of Ballybeggan (Tralee) racecourse, this is not necessarily something which might endear him to many of his countymen. But he believes that people must look to the future rather than embed themselves in the past.

“I agree with Jim Bolger’s basic argument because it comes back to what we want for the future and how best racing can progress into the future,” he says. “To attract people, you need to have the right facilities and I think Kerry and racegoers would be better served into the future by one new facility.

“These days, you will not attract people unless you have top facilities. If we want to prosper, then we have to think along these lines.

“It would be lovely to hang on to tracks, but there is a viability question and that is something we have found here in Punchestown.

“We have 19 days racing here every year and, quite frankly, this does not keep us going. We need things like the Oxegen pop festival and all the other things we run at the event centre to keep us viable — and even then it is tough. “On that basis, it has to be very different for smaller tracks and it must be very difficult for them. If something like this was going to happen, then it is essential that the amount of racing remains the same.

“The other thing is that while some of these tracks might be worth a lot of money, some kind of mechanism has to found whereby the money raised from the sale of any track is put into the development of new facilities. But there has to be a bit of sacrifice.”

Views were canvassed from many of the tracks concerned and opinions were unanimously — and unsurprisingly — biased in favour of the status quo.

So O’Sullivan’s views that the crowds will not come to racing unless proper facilities are there would not be universally popular at the likes of Roscommon, or Bellewstown, for example. He points to the success greyhound racing has had in recent years in drawing new and vibrant crowds to its massively revamped facilities.

Former Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle winning jockey Norman Williamson, is not so certain O’Sullivan’s view rings true. He says that while the idea might be good in theory, in reality things are different.

“The critical things here is the National Hunt racing in the winter. If you centralise racing into one new facility, where are you going to get the ground from?

“One track, unless its has the ability — like Leopardstown, for example — to have three or four different strips of racing ground, will not be able to cope with racing on a weekly or even fortnightly basis.

“Take the Tipperary tracks: Thurles is one of the few places in this country where you are guaranteed racing whatever the weather. Very few of the others can match that and that is a potential problem in developing new facilities.

“Very few tracks can sustain regular racing in the winter and while we’d all love to have a Thurles ground in Navan, or wherever, that’s just not possible.

“Jim [Bolger] has a point if you could develop a new track with modern facilities and loads of room to have different tracks at the same venue, but the other side of the argument is when you look at festival meeting like that at Kilbeggan, say, where there is a huge and enthusiastic crowd and everyone has great craic, even if the facilities aren’t great.

“These places have their place as well and they should be protected. There are plus points to his suggestion, but I think it is a little impractical.”

This theme is taken up by one of the most travelled men in racing, Listowel-based photographer Pat Healy who traverses the length and breadth of Ireland on a weekly basis.

“I go north, south, east and west all the time and, leaving aside where I am based, I find that racing is growing in popularity — more and more people are going racing on a regular basis.

“I was in Downpatrick recently and I couldn’t believe the crowd there — all enjoying themselves. I was talking to a few of the regulars and they were saying they didn’t recognise most of the crowd, which meant they were newcomers.

“In the summer, you can’t have enough tracks because that’s when you get the biggest crowds.

“And you look back to last May when we lost seven meetings because of the weather — hat caused huge disruption. If small local tracks were centralised and that the same thing happened, where would we be?

“I think the amount of tracks is fine and I think they serve racing very well. In fairness to Jim Bolger, he doesn’t have many horses rated from 30-60, so he doesn’t need the races some of these tracks provide. But look at someone like Gerry Cully, who recently considered it worthwhile to travel all the way from his base in Cork to Downpatrick, to have winners at meetings there.

“That’s why we need these tracks — they serve their purpose and they serve their own public.”

Recently retired Gold Cup hero Jim Culloty has just started a career in training. “Places like Killarney and Listowel are essentially festival meetings and people take their holidays to go there and to go racing,” he says. “I know Tralee might be struggling a bit right now, but the others have their place.

“As things stand, there is no winter track in Kerry and I believe that there should be no winter racing in Cork either, because it is not suitable. “Cork should be left alone during the winter and kept for the summer, where it would produce perfect racing ground.

“Country tracks have a place. They might not have great facilities but there are those like Killarney which have spent a lot of money modernising their facilities and have got a return in terms of their attendances.

“These courses have their place in racing and they cater for local people more often than not and some are very successful. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

One man who is very definitely against change in this case is the chairman of the Irish Racehorse Owners Association, Peter McCarthy. He says every area is entitled to have its own track so local people can support local horses or jockeys.

“Each track has its own following and I think it would be wrong to centralise them too much. Each small track has its own flavour and if they were gone, I think it would be terrible. I mean, look at Punchestown on a quiet winter’s day — there’s nobody there in those fantastic facilities.

“You could end up with facilities which are only filled once a year and that would be a shame. Sure, there are tracks which are not completely satisfactory but, in fairness, most are continuing to improve and that’s good.

“The other side, of course, is that one centralised track could not sustain winter racing because of the wear and tear and that would not be much good to anyone.”

Divided views then, across the board. It is obvious this is an argument which could run and run.

Jim Bolger’s views on this are certainly not universally popular, but they are expressed as his opinion and no one else’s.

Even so, though, he may well have lit the fuse on a long-running debate, one which will force people to at least consider the dreaded vista of change.