Fund Delivering Progress For Racegoers

While the demolition and total rebuild of The Curragh Racecourse enclosure and grandstand is easily the highest- profile capital project undertaken in Irish racing this century, the reintroduction of Horse Racing Ireland's Capital Development Scheme several years ago has seen a number of other Irish racecourses avail of the grant aid to upgrade their facilities.

The scheme is open to all 26 Irish racecourses, with HRI providing 40% of the cost of approved projects. With this current fund having come on stream in 2014, the well is starting to run dry.

“We're in the closing stages of it now, it runs until 2019 and most racecourses have submitted proposals at this stage,” Horse Racing Ireland's chief executive Brian Kavanagh said on Monday. “We've evaluated all the plans received and approved most of them; I think there is about half a dozen that have yet to be decided.”

Only last week HRI announced further development work at Clonmel, Dundalk and Bellewstown. This follows recently completed renovations at Naas, with Punchestown also in the midst of a significant facelift that will see a new owners' facility unveiled.

“Jason Morris [HRI director of racing] and his team work closely with the racecourses and their proposals to come up with a priority list for development and we've seen various examples in recent times,” Kavanagh said. “Some of it may seem insignificant, but for example the new weigh room announced for Clonmel last week is a huge project for a relatively small track. Naas got great feedback from their new facility earlier this month and I was over in Punchestown the other day and their development is due for completion in time for their jumps festival in April.”

At Naas two weeks ago, 'The Circle' was opened to the racing public. The panoramic facility was created as part of a €3.2-million HRI Capital Development Scheme that commenced last year. The cylindrically designed building, located between the parade ring and grandstand, allows for greater vantage points.

The track's manager, Tom Ryan, is delighted with the new addition and said, “The Capital Development Fund gave us quite a bit more scope than would have been the case to really develop a top-class facility, and we are thrilled with the feedback from it. The previous building that was there badly needed to be replaced and when we were looking at options Turnberry Consulting, who had been working with The Curragh and Leopardstown, impressed us with their proposal. They've consulted on some of the major racecourse projects around the world and they proposed a round building, originally based on the driver's building at Silverstone. Committing to such a novel and high-end facility also ties in with our aim to provide that extra wow factor for owners who are the lifeblood of the industry.”

Ryan and his committee at Naas have also overseen some major renovations of the racing surface at Naas, including leveling over two furlongs of the sprint track, and he said he is hoping that between the recent improvements for man and beast, the track's promotion to 'premier status' will not be long coming.

While contributing 40% to a project is a major help, racetracks still need to secure the lions' share of the funding to carry out renovations, and Kavanagh said Irish racecourses are in a financial position to think about major spending.

“It's great to see all the racecourses so keen to improve and putting most of their media rights revenues back into facilities,” he said. “While a lot of the tracks have other sources of revenue the media rights have been a huge boost and in fairness to the racecourses none of them are taking dividends, but ploughing income back into the business. However, while racecourses are in better financial shape than they have been for some time, with regards to facilities many of them are playing catch up.”

Kavanagh estimated around €125-million will have been put into Irish racecourses, including Northern Ireland based Down Royal and Downpatrick, by the end of the scheme with HRI contributing 40%. However, he acknowledges more needs to be done.

“There is no shortage of projects still on the table and while it's great that they are being done they are badly needed,” he said. “You can't operate in the sports entertainment business without offering good facilities. It's the minimum that's expected nowadays and thankfully the racecourses are stepping up to the mark.”

He continued, “We stopped the Capital Development Fund for about four years when our own funding was cut and when the economy was struggling, so it was important to get it back up and running when we did. We are currently working on implementing something similar to kick in when the current one runs its course.”

From a development point of view racing's headline act is the home of the Classics, and there is no doubt Irish racegoers will welcome the grand opening of a shiny new Curragh next year.

“Over the past 20 years The Curragh had practically nothing spent on it, so to say it was overdue is an understatement,” Kavanagh said. “Work is progressing well and should be complete by the end of the year.”

Click here for a video update on the Curragh construction released by the racecourse on Monday.

Ireland has a high number of racecourses for its population relative to other countries; about one racecourse per 200,000 people compared to one for every million people in Britain. For this reason attracting customers in through the gates in significant numbers is an ongoing challenge. The main focus of the original Capital Development Scheme well over a decade ago was based around improving facilities for industry participants with projects like new stable yards, betting facilities and weigh rooms high on the list. However, the current scheme sees paying customers and the all-important racehorse owner as the main beneficiaries.

“We put a priority on customer facilities for this scheme including owners and trainers and there has been a lot of progress made in this area in the last few years, admittedly from a low base,” Kavanagh said. “We're trying to put owners in the centre of what we do. Aidan McGarry [HRI's ownership manager] got some interesting feedback from extensive research he carried out and the race day experience for owners was one of the key areas that needed to improve, so we've been working with racecourses to rectify that and obviously the development of owners' facilities is key to that improvement.”

Kavanagh has witnessed racing at the highest level around the world and is well aware of what is on offer for participants in other jurisdictions.

“We can certainly take it to another level in time but for example The Curragh will have world-class facilities next year and I was very impressed with Leopardstown last week,” he said. “There was a great atmosphere in the owners' area, a real club feeling; I actually watched the Ireland Rugby match there and the atmosphere was fantastic.”

Irish racing is not dissimilar to racing in other countries in that it faces ongoing challenges to engage with younger generations in the face of changing demographics and increased competition from other sports and pastimes. Added to this the uncertainty put forward by a shake-up in the media rights situation means the sport has to be ready to adapt to different situations that may be out of its control. With Irish racecourses steadily becoming more customer-centric and now providing facilities that are expected by those investing in the sport, most racecourses can be satisfied they have invested wisely in times of plenty, and will be better placed to develop their businesses in years to come.