Walsh calls for an all-weather Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh this afternoon called for an all-weather track to be provided to meet a need in Irish racing and to facilitate the preparation of horses for racing abroad on artificial surfaces.'It is a shortcoming in Irish racing that there is no all-weather track here and in the relatively near future I would like to see that situation rectified now that so much government money has gone into the sport,' the minister said at the presentation of the Irish Racehorse Trainers` Association Flat race awards` function at the Keadeen Hotel in Newbridge, County Kildare.'In such a competitive international environment, it should not be necessary that horses trained here would need to go over to Lingfield to experience that kind of surface. We should have those facilities here,' the minister added.Walsh was referring to Ballydoyle trainer Aidan O`Brien taking his horses over to Britain to gallop on the all-weather tracks at Lingfield and Southwell.He pointed to the fact that almost €55million had gone into racing in Ireland this year and in all €100m had been invested in recent years in improving racecourses and facilities generally.The minister presented the awards for leading owner, champion trainer and champion jockey to Mrs John Magnier, O`Brien and Pat Smullen respectively.In addition, O`Brien`s feat in saddling 23 Group One or Grade One winners last year worldwide was marked by a special achievement award, and his stable jockey Michael Kinane was lauded as well in that sphere for his long-awaited first Irish Derby victory on O`Brien`s Galileo.Jim Bolger was inducted into the Hall of Fame, while champion apprentice Tadhg O`Shea and Pat Cosgrave (most improved apprentice) also picked up awards.
