TOMORROW, Sunday, July 12th is another significant day in the history of Dundalk Stadium, Ireland’s only all-weather racetrack. The card will be the first staged on the newly laid surface, though CEO Jim Martin and his team held a trials day in mid-June.

This week I caught up with an excited and expectant Jim. He told me: “Sunday is our first meeting since lockdown and our third fixture behind closed doors. July 12th is a traditional fixture in Dundalk that goes back decades and has always been our best-attended meeting, Therefore it will be a strange experience to race with no public in attendance.”