LEOPARDSTOWN could reintroduce its straight six-furlong sprint track using land which is being targeted by the local county council for residential development.

Creating a long-term masterplan for the state-owned Leopardstown is believed to be a priority project within Horse Racing Ireland. Among the possibilities being considered is the reinstatement of the straight sprint track which was lost when the M50 motorway was constructed in 2001.

But that hope could be dashed if Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council [DLRCOCO] succeeds in forcing Leopardstown to give up land it currently uses for parking alongside the M50, near the Carrickmines roundabout.

The council has labelled two such plots as ‘vacant’ and says it will charge Leopardstown an annual levy of 3% of the land’s market value from next year if the racecourse insists on ‘hoarding’ the land. HRI has appealed the matter to An Bord Pleanala.

Leopardstown CEO Pat Keogh referred media queries to John Osborne, head of HRI’s racecourse division. Osborne said: “There are two parcels of land [at risk]. One is across the motorway, towards Ballyogan Road, and the other is near the 10-furlong start,” he said.

“We have appealed their inclusion on the vacant sites register which we hope will be heard before the end of June.

“Both parcels have permission for car parking and both parcels will be the subject of planning applications in the near future, which will take into account the current and future needs of Leopardstown Racecourse.”

He said that both land parcels are “peripheral” to the workings of Leopardstown but they had significant strategic value in the context of an overall masterplan for the facility.

The straight six-furlong track, which saw races start to the right of the grandstand from the spectator’s viewpoint, staged the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes from 1991 to 2001. The race is now run at the Curragh.