Tramore set to ring in racing's New Year
Tramore racecourse manager Owen Byrne is excited to see what 2025 brings for the local track after the success of the past year. Photos: Noel Browne.
As Tramore racecourse gets ready to ring in the New Year once again on Wednesday next, January 1, with the O’Driscoll’s Irish Whiskey New Year’s Day Chase that is set to attract another bumper crowd to the seaside track, racecourse manager Owen Byrne and his team are busy behind the scenes gearing up for their big day.
It promises to be another day to remember at the local track as thousands are expected to attend the meeting that starts off the racing year with Tramore set to hold another 11 race days during 2025.
Reflecting on the year just gone, Byrne said: “It was another successful year, but I suppose the weather was difficult so that made it tough in some ways. We lost a fixture in July to rain, which was unbelievable, but August was a great success.
“We kicked the year off with another cracking New Year’s Day Chase back in January in some of the worst weather I’ve seen and I was worried that we wouldn’t get through the card at one stage, but listen, the people still came and they seemed to enjoy the day.
“The four days of August were a massive success for us. We’ve very lucky that people support us and they come from far and wide. We’ll get the local support year in, year out, but we’ve trying to support people as well.
“We had a community Sports Club day back in April, which was a great success and all the sports clubs around Tramore and the county benefited, and that was nice to see. I’m hoping that we can do that again in 2025.
“Whilst it was a very successful year for the track, it is challenging times with racing overall in the industry with the media rights and things like that, but look, we’re here to race and we’re here for the sole purpose of racing.”
Byrne is delighted about the improvement been made around the track including the introduction of new saddling boxes. “As you’ve seen for yourself, we got 24 new saddling boxes which is great, but the directors are great here at Tramore. They’ve been very supportive and it’s not cheap to do these types of projects.
“We’ve got a lot of projects done over the last five or six years, which had allowed us to race. Quite frankly, if we didn't have them, we wouldn't be right. We'd be in difficult situation.
“You see courses because of the weather changes, like Thurles in recent months, haven’t been able to race because they don't have a watering system. They generally don't need to have it because they race during the winter, but it has been so exceptionally drying up to last week.
“They were watering in Fairyhouse for a fixture in December, which is incredible, so we’re very lucky that we have the facilities here to do that. It allows us to race and jump all through the summer, which would be very difficult if we didn't have the system.”
After Savills finished up their sponsorship of the Grade 3 Chase on New Year’s Day, Owen and the team at the Tramore are delighted to have a new main sponsor on board.
“Savills have finished up with us. They've been here for seven years, they’ve been an amazing supporter here for a very long time, and it's worked very, very well for them. But things change and things move on. The priorities change, and we're very grateful to them for that period of time.
“We’ve more of a local sponsor come on board now in O’Driscoll’s Irish Whiskey, which are based in Wexford, but they've other business interests in Waterford as well. So Michael Stafford is the MD there, so he's come on board with us.
“We’re really looking forward to that, and we also have Mercedes Benz Wexford coming on board as well as the sponsor this year, and they're a new sponsor for us. It’s all really good, really positive. People still want to be involved, and hopefully they see the benefits of been involved with the racecourse.”
Byrne and the team are now looking forward to New Year’s Day and 2025. “Hopefully we’ve ready. The long range forecast is suggesting that things could be kinder for us this year.
“I think it's a nice time for people down around here. A lot of people are home for Christmas, and they're just about to go home, but it gives them a nice bit of an opportunity to be able to get out with friends and family so we’re expecting a big crowd.
“Hopefully we'll have some we'll have some big names coming to race, because the ground been good in a lot of other places, people will want to run on some bit more forgiving ground. So hopefully we might attract a few big names there.
“Tickets are €25 with the early bird tickets are on sale now until Christmas Eve, and so you can get discounts there. 25% saving on ticket. The first race is due off at noon with gates opening at 11am. We have Brass & Co playing after racing so that should be fun.
We have a good team of casual staff. They're all teed up and ready to go. They all know what's going on. There’s a lot of logistics that goes on with it. From trophies to prize rugs, signage, marketing, all of the stuff that goes on. We’re busy, but we’ll be ready.”
