Will Tipperary's new all-weather track be worth the costly delays?

Johnny Ward expects further delays and costs to rise before the new all-weather track at Tipperary opens.

Speaking on this week’s Irish Angle show, the racing journalist also questioned whether the new track will serve a purpose beyond hosting “industry meetings” that are unattractive to crowds.

The Irish Field reported on Friday (24th October) that the new all-weather track will open in late 2027 by the earliest.

The originally quoted cost of €18million has also risen with HRI now seeking approval to borrow between €25million and €35 million to complete the project.

‘Prices Are Insane’

“I have reservations around this in the first place,” Ward explained

“I think there’s too much racing in Ireland at the moment. I don’t think we need another all-weather track.

“I feel the more meetings we have that are effectively industry meetings, the less attractive the game becomes for people to get involved in the first place.

“But I suppose maybe there’s an argument that the horse population needs it.

“HRI wants to have more fixtures and wants this to happen. The prize money at Dundalk is poor, and prize money across Ireland is poor.

“Whether Tipperary all-weather is the answer, I’m not sure.

“But I would have said it should have been done at a time when prices hadn’t absolutely skyrocketed and when it could have been done at a reasonable cost.

“The problem with the development now, with inflation, is that anything costs an insane amount of money. It’s almost inevitable that HRI doesn’t have the money to do this at the moment and does need to get some money in from outside sources.

“I’d be skeptical as to whether it can happen in the timeframe. When things start getting delayed and there seems to be a bit of sheepishness about the money, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was delayed a bit further.

“I’ve never been a fan of the idea of another all-weather track in Ireland, or certainly not more industry fixtures.

“Tipperary is not going to attract a crowd for all-weather races, and the more industry meets you have in Ireland, the more it’s like — what’s the point of racing if there’s going to be nobody there?

“You might as well just have fewer tracks if it’s only catering for an internal audience. I’d be slightly worried by this development for Tipperary.”

Industry Taking A Risk

irishracing.com editor Vincent Finegan highlighted the risk HRI are taking by borrowing such a huge sum.

He said: “When you talk about Dundalk — that was done with private money, so if it went belly-up or something went wrong, that’s their problem, not the industry’s problem as such.

“Whereas if this does go wrong in some way, or something happens — let’s say for argument’s sake we got foot-and-mouth or whatever happened, and there was no racing for six or nine months — Horse Racing Ireland would still be paying back the debt on that development.”

Make More Use Of Dundalk

Emma Nagle agreed with Ward and Finegan and suggested that making more use of Dundalk’s all-weather track may be more sensible than opening a new facility at huge expense.

She said: “The fact that they’re borrowing the money would make you a bit worried because it means the project has to be a success.

“Is there a need for more all-weather racing? I can see the point that it’s going to be a lot more accessible to trainers down south because traveling to Dundalk is obviously costly and takes up a lot of time if you’re coming from somewhere in Cork or anywhere down south. It’s a big day out.

“But you could run racing in Dundalk five, six, even seven days a week. Is there really much need to build another all-weather track? Maybe they could just make more use of Dundalk on its own rather than having one or two fixtures there every week.

“I’ve seen plenty of trainers make the case that there’s enough racing for that level of horse, but whether it justifies building a whole new all-weather track, I’m not sure.

“Tipperary is a racecourse that I really like — it’s always a good day out down there. But, as Johnny said, how much support will these all-weather meetings get from the public? It’s hard to know.

“Just the fact that the costs are rising for it and that they’re borrowing the money makes it seem quite risky.”

Watch The Irish Angle In Full:

Or Listen On Spotify