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.”

The big race is the Group 3 Ballysax Stakes over 10 and a half furlongs. Jim is delighted to host this race, more usually associated with Leopardstown. “We are thrilled that the Woodford Reserve Ballysax Stakes is our feature on the day and this is the second qualifier for the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby [scheduled to be run now on Saturday, September 6th] we have staged in 2020. Our first qualifier was the Woodford Reserve Patton Stakes which we ran in February and it was won by the Joseph O’Brien-trained Crossfirehurricane.

“Mike Zeigler, the director of racing at Churchill Downs, approached us to see if we could stage another qualifier and, thanks to the efforts of Horse Racing Ireland and Leopardstown, the Ballysax Stakes was transferred to Sunday’s fixture. It is an exciting race to have on our first fixture on our new surface which was installed following our March 20th meeting.”

A number of local trainers were among those who sent some 16 horses to Dundalk for the trials, held to satisfy the licensing department of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Body.

This went well and Jim said “the feedback was very positive and we got their seal of approval. Great credit goes to our head groundsman Sean Gamble and our contractor Kevin Connolly and their teams for completing the job in time and on budget.

“The new Polytrack surface was supplied by Martin Collins International and was manufactured in Warrington in the north of England. It was transported in four boat loads from Liverpool to Dundalk port. Thankfully, the weather played its part and in the 10 weeks it took to complete the job we only had one wet day.”

What does one do with the old surface, which had been upgraded last year following some criticism? Jim had good news about that. “In March we advertised the sale of the old surface in The Irish Field and the demand for the old surface was amazing. It has been sold and shipped all over the country and to France. A number of winners have already been trained on it!”

Jim and the team face a busy few months, and are grateful to be able to make up for lost meetings. “We lost five fixtures during the lockdown and these have been rescheduled in November when we are due to race 11 times. We will stage 22 fixtures in October, November, December and this will be by far the busiest three months we’ve had since we opened the all-weather track in 2007.

“I’m confident the track will cope as this is the level of usage that most all-weather tracks throughout the world operate at. By year end we will have staged the 38 fixtures allocated in the original 2020 fixture list.”

Racing behind closed doors is far from ideal, but Dundalk has not forgotten its paying customers. Jim explains: “The team in the marketing department has been working hard on our Virtual Ladies Day which is on Sunday, and it has proven to be very popular. Our hope is that the July 12th fixture next year will be healthy and we will be back enjoying our great sport with friends. Owners being allowed back racing from July 20th is the next step on this journey and they will add atmosphere.”