A MAJOR announcement about the Tipperary Venue project is expected in October.

There are plans to build a new racecourse on the site at Two-Mile-Borris, along with a hotel and equestrian centre, but the project’s backers have said little in public since planning permission was granted in 2013.

Last week The Irish Field reported that there has been increased activity on the site in the past month and a new video of the development was discovered online. It was also reported that a local farmer who had rented land on the site had been given six months’ notice to vacate the site.

This week The Irish Field learned that a further landbank has been acquired by the developers to accommodate the amended racecourse configuration. The new plan caters for separate flat, chase, hurdle and all-weather tracks of two miles in circumference.

A source close to the project told The Irish Field that the backers of the Tipperary Venue are readying themselves to relaunch the project in a matter of weeks.

When plans for the Tipperary Venue were originally launched in 2009 there was speculation that the proposed racecourse would eventually replace the existing tracks at Thurles, Clonmel and Tipperary.

The inclusion of an all-weather track in the Tipperary Venue plans could be of interest to Horse Racing Ireland. Two months ago, HRI’s chief executive Brian Kavanagh told The Irish Field that one of his priorities as he embarked on a third term in charge of Irish racing was to “develop a future strategy for all weather racing in Ireland.”