Racecourse boss seeks winning track record

Tomorrow, Leopardstown racecourse in Dublin will host one of the highlights of European flat racing. The Bailey's Irish Champion Stakes regularly attracts elite thoroughbreds from top Irish and international stables, and almost always lives up to its billing as one of the races of the season.

But Niall Mackey, chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland's (HRI) Irish racecourse division, believes that as a crowd puller, the race has yet to fulfil its potential. "We're expecting 15,000, but for a race like this, I'd like to see 20,000," he says.

Mackey has recently taken over his new role after a series of key European management positions with Nokia and Interoute, where at one stage he had responsibility for 1,500 people. His new job is to oversee the development of the four racecourses owned by the State - Leopardstown, Fairyhouse, Navan and Tipperary. Given the current health of the sport here, you'd have to imagine that it's not the toughest job in the world. There are tougher tasks, but it will not be easy. Three of the courses have been losing money, and all need to be redeveloped to keep bringing in customers.

Leopardstown makes close to €1 million in profits a year, according to Mackey, 55 per cent of this comes from non-racing activities like golf, conferences and its bar. Fairyhouse lost €300,000 in the year ended June 2005. Navan and Tipperary lost smaller amounts.

He points out that Navan's racing business is profitable, but the track is paying off the cost of developing a golf course in its infield, eliminating the surplus. By the time that is cleared, the business should also be profitable.

All four courses have a central strength. Their basic product, racing, is of a high standard. Mackey believes Leopardstown is "the best dual purpose [ flat and national hunt] course in Europe". Along with the champion stakes, it hosts good flat racing throughout the summer and in winter it holds some of the best national hunt racing in Europe, including a four-day Christmas festival which attracts crowds of up to 20,000 a day. Navan also has good national hunt racing. Five of this year's 10 Irish Cheltenham Festival winners won their races at the Meath track. Fairyhouse is home to the Irish Grand National and its December festival is another starting point for horses on their way to Cheltenham. Both Fairyhouse and Navan host decent flat racing as well.

Tipperary's biggest day, the first Sunday in October, holds top quality racing under both codes in one afternoon. Horses that began their careers at the track have won races like the Epsom Derby and Breeders' Cup in the US.

But none of this necessarily brings in the crowds. Fairyhouse is just 16km from Dublin's city centre, and is 10 minutes from Blanchardstown, one of its biggest suburbs, but has failed to cash in on this, particularly during the summer. "Outside of the big festivals, it's just not well attended enough," he says. The track has had problems, not least a €6.4 million debt HRI cleared. It now owes the State body €3 million - €4 million. Mackey sees his first job here as stabilising the situation, and then developing the racing, and facilities for punters. That involves looking at the business case for various developments in the racecourse complex.

Along with that, he wants to see more use made of it on non-race days. "We're not maximising the asset down there," he says. "We have a new partner in Campbells and they're going to work with us in promoting it for Christmas parties, for conferences. We'll be putting in the latest audio-visual equipment there."

Fairyhouse was the original location for the Witnness rock festival, which has since moved to Punchestown, and Mackey is hoping this can be replaced with a similar event.

Tipperary's future presents less difficulties. The track has survived with the help of an enthusiastic supporters' club, and it looks set to have a captive audience on its doorstep. It is across the road from the Limerick Junction rail hub. This will be the site for a development of 900 houses, a hotel and golf course.

He also intends to hire a new marketing executive for Leopardstown, which has the biggest captive audience in Dublin and, thanks to the Luas, is within half an hour of Stephen's Green.

But while there will always be a good core audience for racing in this country, there is a new market that Mackey and HRI have to look to keep growing gate receipts.

These are essentially "social racegoers", who are along for an evening out where the sport itself is part, but not all of, the entertainment. Mackey says they are going to focus as much on the facilities as on the racing. Hardcore fans will also be hard to attract if facilities are not up to scratch.

"My focus is going to be driving up attendances by providing better customer service," he says. "Conditions could be an awful lot better, from catering, to toilets, to parking, the whole thing. We're working on all of that, which will deliver better attendances for Leopardstown, Navan, Fairyhouse and Tipperary."

Another issue is resources. The State-owned courses constitute a very valuable landbank. There are frequent rumours that one or other is going to be sold to fund development elsewhere. He is adamant that this is not going to happen. But Fairyhouse does have extra land, not part of the track itself, which will be sold to fund future development there.

There is a €200 million plan to redevelop private and State-owned Irish racecourses. Leopardstown will be one of the courses that will see major redevelopment under this plan.

This may involve losing some meetings during the 18-months rebuilding. However, Mackey says it will make every effort to maintain the successful Wednesday evening summer meetings during that time. In the meantime, the same course has a treat in store for racing fans tomorrow. Hopefully, the crowds will turn up.