The premiere of the new Limerick racecourse may have been a year late but the reviews for the €12 million facility fairly gushed yesterday.
"Super," reported jockey Norman Williamson who won the first race: "Excellent," said trainer Arthur Moore: "A wonderful job," beamed Mouse Morris after the topweight Foxchapel King landed the featured Munster National. The feel-good factor was almost overpowering as a 18,000-strong crowd crammed into the new track which looked resplendent in the Autumn sunshine.
One drawback to the huge attendance was the traffic problems that caused a close on two-mile tail-back that trailed well back to the motorway just 15 minutes before the first race started.
In fact, it wasn't long before the character of Ireland's first new racecourse for 50 years revealed itself as being a lot more pacy than the pre-race gridlock.
"It's a sharp track that suits a front runner. It doesn't take a lot of getting which I wouldn't have thought after walking it. But you can't make up a lot of ground except for down the back which is uphill and hardly ideal," said jockey Conor O'Dwyer.
"A fast track," agreed Williamson but Arthur Moore stressed the positive the new course will present for the sport during the depths of winter.
"It's a super turf with good drainage and the place looks excellent. Ideally the track might be stiffer but it will serve a valuable purpose in the future and it will be great for three or four days racing during Christmas," he said.
Racecourse manager Angus Houston admitted to being "stunned" by the size of the crowd. "If we had got 12,000, I would have been delighted. Any more and I thought we might have struggled but the place seems to have coped. The stand is huge and the weather helped too.
"We will have to look at the traffic situation for St Stephen's Day but 18,000 people equates to 10,000 cars and to cope with that we would need six entrances. But we hope to have that sorted out by Christmas," said Houston.
The bookies turned over €675,000 with another €192,480 bet on the Tote but most of the huge crowd were out of luck in the Punch & Partners Munster National as the 12 to 1 Foxchapel King defied topweight under David Casey and beat off Super Franky by five lengths.
"He's a class horse and loves the trip," reported Casey. Mouse Morris said the winner will probably bid for a race at Cheltenham next time out. "There should be a fair bit of improvement in him," he said.
In addition to the opening winner, Rain In Spain, Norman Williamson also landed the conditions hurdle on the 12 to 1 Best Wait but the 1 to 6 Golden Row made no mistake in the novice hurdle and even picked up a 9 to 1 favourite quote from Cashmans for the Supreme Novices at Cheltenham in March.
