ALL racecourses need a crowd to create atmosphere, and the lack of paying customers will be especially noticeable during the good weather in the summer months. One upcoming meeting that really appreciates a crowd is Bellewstown. Hopefully the day is not too far away when they will throng the hill of Crockafotha again.

At least racing goes ahead and in anticipation of the action, both flat and National Hunt, I turned to the excellent volume published in 2013 called Almost 300 years of racing at Bellewstown. Written and compiled by John Kirwan, who was born and reared on the fringes of the racecourse, and Fiona Ahern of the Bellewstown Heritage Group, it contains a treasure chest of facts and stories.

In light of The Irish Field celebrating 150 years in existence, and getting feedback on the popularity of the stories in our lookback column, I delved into the results from 50, 60 and 70 years ago at the Bellewstown July meeting. The names that popped up show what a great tradition we have in the sport of racing.

1970

Three winners for veteran trainer Tom Dreaper and a second day treble for apprentice Gabriel Curran were the meeting’s highlights. There were also doubles for trainer Kevin Prendergast and jockeys Pat Taaffe and Tommy Carberry.

Dreaper opened the meeting by winning the Meath Hurdle with Fortina’s Dream ridden by Taaffe, and he saddled Black Secret to win the Duleek Chase ridden by his son Jim. The following spring Black Secret was just touched off in the Grand National at Aintree.

Gabriel ‘Squibs’ Curran won all three flat races on the second day and Bellewstown was to become a very lucky track for him. Usually associated with Kevin Prendergast, for whom he rode two winners, his first of the day was on board Galesian for Christy Grassick.

One of the beaten horses on the day was Allangrange who finished fourth in the Corporation Maiden Plate. He won his next five starts, including the Irish St Leger.

The meeting ended with Dermot Weld riding the Mick O’Toole-trained Partian Ranger to victory in the bumper.

1960

Blueville and Little Champ were saddled to win on both days of the meeting for the Hoey and Dunwoody stables. Mick Kennedy won the three flat races on the opening day, two of them for trainer Bert Kerr, Sparkling Flame warmed up for his Galway Hurdle triumph a few weeks later with success in the traditional opener, the Meath Hurdle. Kevin Prendergast won the bumper.

A feature of the second day was the victory for Deal Sma in the Queen’s Plate, ridden by Peadar Matthews and trained at Balrath by Matt Geraghty. Other familiar names in the winner’s enclosure were riders Willie Robinson, Cathal Finnegan, T.P Burns and Christy Kinane.

1950

Seventy years ago the main event on the first day, the Drogheda Tradesmen’s Chase, was won by the mare Bright Cherry for Mary Baker. Trained by Tom Dreaper and ridden by Pat Taaffe, she is better known as the dam of Arkle. Three years after this success, the dam of Arkle’s great rival, Mill House, won the same chase.

Following a long absence through injury, the amateur George Dunwoody returned to the saddle and won the Meath Hurdle on his own Cloncaw, trained by Robert Patton. Another amateur, Bunny Cox, enjoyed success in the bumper on Embarkation for trainer Dan Moore.

On day two Jimmy Eddery added two more winners to his success 24 hours earlier, including the King’s Plate. Martin Molony completed a double, the second leg for Joe Osborne and in that race his brother Tim was on the runner-up.

While in recent years we have seen plenty of top-class runners emerge from the maidens at Bellewstown, this is not a new phenomenon. We await the outcome of next week’s racing with great interest.