Sir, - The Racing Club of Ireland rightly admonishes the Irish Horseracing Authority for its indifference to the serious condition of racing in the nation's capital city.
As the foremost racing body, with responsibility for the industry, it must ultimately be held responsible for the fate of the Park. It should have stopped at nothing; instead it did nothing to keep it. Moreover, it is difficult to understand its inaction since many of the individual bodies which made up the IHA (and which are also blamed, somewhat unfairly, by the RCI) have in fact actively supported restoration of the Park Racecourse for many years. Who controls the IHA? The Turf Club, RACE, the owners', trainers' and breeders' associations tried at all planning levels to protect the racecourse lands from development and put their cases strongly. In the council chamber, their representations mostly met with indifference, one councillor quite incredibly declaring that she was discounting them because they were motivated by self-interest!
Politicians must be blamed for their failure to recognise the magnitude of the loss of the Park. While its counterpart, Leopardstown, was described by one local councillor as "the jewel in the Rathdown crown", most Fingal councillors can hardly wait to get rid of the Park. Indeed, its closure in 1990 was distinguished by the fact that not one political voice was raised in query or objection, or even in regret or sympathy for its patrons. All this is in marked contrast to other less successful or significant tracks, where threatened closure was met with immediate response by the politicians. None of these tracks has closed to date.
The Park racecourse had yearly attendances nearing 95,000 (well above the national average) and its revenue was always in the top bracket. The cruellest blow came when it was given the epitaph of "failure" by its owners, eager to justify its closure. If this is failure, what is success in racing terms? The year after it closed, overall revenue and attendances in the industry plummeted dramatically. Much of this would have been accounted for by Park racegoers, most of whom would have been Dubliners who would not have gone elsewhere. Thus, a whole colony of Dublin racegoers has been lost - not just in this generation, but for foreseeable generations.
For the sake of racing in Dublin, something must be done urgently to rescue the Park racecourse. It can't be said that the money isn't there. Apart from the booming economy, there is Lotto and Millennium funding available. It is heartbreaking to read with such frequency of the good fortune of other sporting facilities (racing and otherwise), receiving generous sums, the equivalent of which would save the Park. And what if the new millennium dawns on a Dublin without one of its best known and loved landmarks - "the Park". For shame! Dublin deserves better. - Yours, etc., M. Lynch and P. Allison,
Phoenix Park Racecourse Preservation Association, Ellesmere Avenue, Dublin 7.