GOWRAN Park unveiled a state of the art new weighroom in January, but the Co Kilkenny venue isn’t stopping there. Roofs have been refurbished and flooring replaced, as they await final planning permission for the development of a club lounge for members, owners and trainers in the main grandstand.

Racecourse manager Eddie Scally reported: “We’re hoping the final stages of planning will go through by the end of this month and that we’ll be going through to tender before Christmas, with the plan to start building work straight after Holden Plant Rental day in early March.

“We’re quadrupling our current members’ area in size and giving it a private viewing area in the stand, so that from one side, it overlooks the betting ring and from the other side, they’re overlooking the winning post.”

The new area will accommodate 300, as the track aims to cater to bigger crowds on key race days, with the development of new public toilets on the middle floor being undertaken for the same reason.

“We’d really love to have it finished in time for the EBF Gowran classic, that’d be the target,” Scally explained. “It’s probably more realistic with ladies’ day in July, but we’ll be targeting the June back holiday, and we’ll be putting pressure on everybody to try and have a finish for that.

Vital funding

“I’d have this finished before Christmas if I got grant aid from Horse Racing Ireland,” he adds, as Gowran Park will itself fund the latest developments, which are expected to cost €1.3million. The ground floor of the new weigh room received funding from Horse Racing Ireland, as weigh rooms are a focus of HRI’s throughout the country, but Gowran Park footed the bill for the roof and also decided to add a second floor as part of the works.

Strangest thing

“But for the grant aid from Horse Racing Ireland, you wouldn’t be able to take on projects like this, that cost two and a half million,” Scally said. “The strangest thing in racing is the grants from Horse Racing Ireland are only specific to jobs that HRI wants you to do. So hypothetically, they decide that every course needs new stables, or every race course needs to rubberize parade rings and rubberize trot-up areas. Tracks themselves know what they need best to improve their own business, and I think that’s where we are missing a trick a little bit sometimes.”