Possible race course in Cavan Town area?

Dickie10

ust doing a spot of thinking about the current geographic location of irelands racecourses and the north midlands, south ulster is very low on courses was just thinking a new course in around Cavan town would be ideal, Navan, Kilbeggan and Dundalk are the closest and thier all well over an hours drive from Cavan.

there would proobarbly be a big opening for one around donegal, west tyrone too you woould imagine, but cavan with the equistrian centre would seem a good fit, and it has a nice little town for post race celebrations, the october bank holiday weekend would seem to be thin on the ground for good race festival.

i mean meath,kildare,kerry and tipperary have 3 apiece, but yet none in Cavan,Monaghon, Lietrim, Longford or Donegal and then you have all of Ulster apart from the 2 in Down. im thinking if this was pushed hard by cavan co.co i could become reality, imagine the tourism and money it would bring in, id say if it were to be based around one big weekend of say 3 day festivel on october bank holiday and then soe nice summer evening meetings or even a 1 day xmas meeting it would definitly take off.

out of intrest do most people in cavan head for navan or kilbeggan and rosscommon for racing? apart from galway, listowel, cheltenham biggies!

lycan238

Hi just noticed this thread. I head to Navan when I want to go to live racing. Want to go to the Laytown races some year though.

Yes it would bring tourism into the area and some if not most of the racegoers would have reasonable income therefore income could be expected by other businesses in the area ie local shops, restaurants etc. Regarding the 'festival' over the october bank holiday yes that sounds good as does evening racing. You could always have races on from 12.00 to half 3 on a Saturday or Sunday either say during winter. Realistically you would be talking about 12-15 meetings annually.

Dickie10

yeah i think even if there were 9 or ten good meets a year. kilbeggan has only that much or less, id imagine it could be very good for stag weekends as well. is there much intrest in racing in cavan town, i dont hear to many trainers or yards?

lycan238

Yeah 9 or 10 including a 3 or 4 day 'festival' type meeting would suit and people will travel to go to races. As long as it did not clash with racing in dundalk, navan, sligo or roscommon I dont see much of a problem. Also clashing with established races in other tracks around Ireland would cause problems. Yes stag weekends and indeed hen weekends would be popular with racegoers as well as individuals who frequent race tracks. I am not aware of how many trainers or yards are in Cavan or indeed the general NE area.

Dickie10

i live near trim so gerry keane, gordon elliot, tony martin, micheal cunningham,joanna morgan, adraian maguire and norman williamson would be local yards here, i think theres a few smaller yards around kilmessan and then meade in navan. not sure about westmeath or louth of course gigginstown stud is in killucan which is about 10 miles away in westmeath. just wondering is racing big in cavan?

in our area everone between 19 and 50 go to gaalway every summer and then a few always head to cheltenham or aintree every year. im just curious because 10 years ago galway waas popular in racing families but now the ypung lads that head to galway and back horses there fathers would never have been to a races in their lives. it seems round the south meath area any way that racing is seenas the coll thing to be at and going to, much more than say even GAA. I know from friends that it is the same in kildare area.

there is usually about 40 from our village alone that i would meet down there every year, just wondered was it the same everywhere?

lycan238

I honestly could not tell you how popular it is here. I have only started becoming interested in horse racing as I joined OMAC who assist in providing first aid at some race tracks in Ireland. Have been to a few meetings with them in Navan so far. Have not gone to galway but would watch those races on the TV from the comfort of my sofa (I know its not the same as being there).