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I am fairly sure this week would have seen racing at Tralee in the not too distant past. A few days racing were always held at the same time as the Rose of Tralee contest (parodied as “Lovely Girls” in “Father Ted”).
The racecourse was closed in 2008 after being sold to a property developer at the end of the Celtic Tiger years. We all know what happened next. It turned out to be a paper tiger, blown away by the financial crisis.
The property scheme inevitably fell through. The site has stood idle ever since, save for occasional events including a point to point.
I doubt the track will ever reopen. Listowel and Killarney are both near by, so perhaps there is no demand for another track in Kerry. But it does seem a shame the track has been left to go to ruin:
Cork,
Its bloody sad when these old established places are lost. Im living in a delusional world where I hope my local Towcester will return.. But no chance its gone to the dogs…I used go to it regularly, just mentioning to Dad this week that I always think of it around this time of year. It was the second racecourse I ever visited. The first being Listowel, which is only 17 miles from Tralee. Living where I did, you had two race weeks as Tralee was so close and it was always just before going back to school. Then our school would close for the week of Listowel in September
But Tralee was lovely, they had raced there since 1757. Was a 6 day festival at one stage but in later years had come back to four days. Actually the Rose Of Tralee contest was first organised (in 1957 – thanks Google) by the Race Company as a night-time event for the racegoers in the town. The enclosure was full of rose beds on the green in front of the stands, there was box hedging around the weigh room area and the parade ring. it had an Epsom like winners enclosure in front of the weigh room which was separate from the paddock. Unlike Epsom there was also an area for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th. It was one of my favourite tracks.
Well now it’s locked up most of the time and as that article says the stands are in a race to see which falls down first. The photo in that article if from the point to point this April. (Actually, watch out for a horse that won at the meeting, Histrionic – sold to PFN for €450,000 at the Punchestown sale just a few days after). There’s also the Kingdom Cup coursing meeting still run there each Christmas.
The dates went mainly went to Killarney, and the June 2-day meeting went to Listowel. The races in Killarney next still have some throwback to Tralee, the Kingdom Gold Cup was the Carling Gold Cup in Tralee, The Ruby Stakes is still run as it was, the QR Race was the Havasnack Plate and the Denny Gold Medal Chase is now the Lough Leane.
Thanks for that link CAS. I had assumed it had all been built on by now. RTE covered some of the August races annually live before its closure in 2008. I seem to remember the high camera angle from the stand made them out to be quite a spectacle.
Peter Thomas wrote a very erudite piece on Tuesday about the history of the long defunct Stockbridge racecourse and racing centre in Hampshire. Coincidentally I see from wiki that the racecourse at Ballybeggan Park Tralee, a former deer-park was established in the same year that Stockbridge racecourse was closed – 1898.
I didn’t realise that Cottenham had closed until I read grandstand was for sale today. Used to go regularly in 90s , lovely stand , great viewing . Sir Mark Prescott was clerk of course or starter I cannot recall exactly his role now, starter I’d put more money on thinking about it .
I do recall in 99 going and horse called Ballyquintet fronted up twice in the card a few hours apart .
Towcester was great too , just close enough for drive from London for evening meeting .
Seen Folkestone on you tube , all overgrown last I looked it up .Closed in 2020.
Great viewing track – not least because it had that small Grandstand – and well drained.
One of my edges was I measured the “2m4f” at 2m2f110yds and that private knowledge proved a good source of winners, both there and elsewhere – a 13/2 winner of a 2m2f110yds Novices’ Hurdle at Newton Abbot subsequently springs to mind.
Numerous Point courses have closed nationwide and if an incoming Labour government carries out its pledge to ban trail hunting then hunting may all but cease and as the vast majority of Points are fundraisers for Hunting, organised by Hunts, the sport of Pointing faces a bleak and uncertain future.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Thanks for everyone’s replies, especially Michael with his memories of Tralee racecourse. Unfortunately I never managed to get there but I have stayed in the town, when I went to Listowel races in 2016.
I assume Tralee was (to date) the last racecourse in Ireland to close. From memory, I suppose Phoenix Park was the most recent course to close before Tralee, some time in the early 1990s.
There was only one betting shop in the village where I grew up. It had a map on the wall showing the location of all the British and Irish racecourses. It was so old it still had a few long defunct tracks shown. In Ireland these included Tuam and Baldoyle (Dublin Metropolitan). The latter closed in the 1960s!
Here is a Pathe News clip of Baldoyle in 1925. Ireland in the post civil war and partition era. It was clearly a popular track:
Some great stuff in this thread, especially Michael’s contribution about Tralee.
Thank you. 👍
Interesting Ian that the 2 mile 4 was not quite as advertised as I recall every meeting had one or two short course maidens so good knowledge to have .
Went one Sunday and with big noms 7 races ended up with 10 .Little Windsor I went to a few times , another gone . David
Pipe had plenty runners there . Me and my Dad made the next year’s South Wessex Area I think is commitee covering it PTP brochere as background crowd there after one visit .Saw a great two runner race there , winning distance short head after 3 miles .
Badbury Rings a lovely track near Little Windsor I hope survives , PTP great day out .My Littlewindsor story….
I visited just the once, about eight years ago one sunny Sunday.
There was a cheery old guy on the gate.
“How much to get in, please?” I asked.
“£10, you don’t sound local – where you from?” he asked by way of reply.
“Hampshire,” said I.
“Hampshire? You drove all the way from Hampshire to go to our little old point to point? For you – fiver!”
Couldn’t have been a better first impression and, after parking up, I went to the food tent where I found the fiver I’d saved bought me what was basically a local steak in a bun and delicious it was too.
I’d only really come to back one horse if it was running – I can’t quite recall it’s exact name but it had been third in a 2m4f Chepstow Novice Hurdle, it was in a 3m Maiden Point here and on my numbers it had two stone in hand of its exposed rivals.
It was declared to run, it opened Evens in a place, I stepped in, it was immediately cut to 1/2 and IIRC just got even shorter after that.
As they went to post, the commentator informed us all the horse was owned by the race sponsor and my confidence just grew and grew.
As for the race, easiest winner I ever backed, always cantering and the jockey showed remarkable strength to win hard held by eight lengths because it would have been a distance if he’d let out an inch of rein.
Beautiful little venue and a wonderful day out.
Badbury Rings still exists and the next fixture there is on Sunday 12th November.
Incredibly well-drained track and the ground is often quick – I saw Twig bolt in last time I was there and he’s gone on to be quite useful under rules.
Sorry for any thread hijack – back to Tralee!
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Great thread, have to agree with that. Thanks for uploading an almost 100 year old clip, Cork.
Mix of emotions reading about old tracks ,I like the subject but feels quite sad as i think slowly but surely the racing world is getting less varied .
There would be hundreds of tracks across the world come and gone .I made an mistake about Baldoyle earlier. It closed in 1972, not in the 1960s as stated earlier.
Arkle ran there once, in April 1962. He was unplaced in a handicap hurdle. Good ground and a sharp track did not suit him.
Baldoyle missed celebrating its centenary by just two years. It was the only course in the Dublin metropolitan area until Leopardstown opened in 1888.
I can’t find any clips of Tralee.
On the subject of old tracks: there was an interesting thread about Stockton racecourse on the Betfair forum earlier this week.
I think it closed in 1981 (it was still shown on the map in the betting shop I mentioned earlier). I never went there but my father did many times. It was his local track when he was growing up.
I knew Stockton was one of the few tracks which kept racing going during WW2. What I had not appreciated was due to petrol rationing, horses could not race far from where they were trained. It meant horses trained in the north could only race at Stockton and Pontefract. The only exceptions were “open races” run at Newmarket (the Classics, big handicaps and the equivalent of what would now be Group races).
This meant the great horse Dante only ever raced at Stockton and on the Newmarket July Course. He won five times in the North East and three times at Newmarket in open races: the Coventry, Middle Park and the Derby. All three were wartime substitutes run on the July course, although the war in Europe had been over for almost a month when the Derby was run.
On my way to Aintree in April I stopped off for my first visit to the old Lanark racecourse.
Although the railings have been taken away the track is pretty much still in place including the straight course so I was able to walk round
There are still horses kept there and exercised.
As for points I envy you guys as you have plenty to choose from. My annual visit to my local track at Balcormo was taken away when it was closed during covid and the fixture was moved 70 miles away to Overton in Lanarkshire
Every time I’m in the area, I park up at Alexandra Palace and walk the old Alexandra Park racecourse, usually while playing old clips of it off YouTube on my phone.
Willie Carson hated it and said it “needed bombing,” John McCririck wanted it reopened – I just thought it was amazing and London and racing lost something the day it closed.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"
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