ONE of the saving graces for the racing and bloodstock industry during lockdown was that public gallops around the country were allowed to stay open.

Lee Valley gallops in Ratoath, Co. Meath was one of these venues, having initially sought clarification from the HSE and local authorities that they could continue business. This meant it was business as usual for any trainer, handler or breeze-up consignor for the last few months.

David Eiffe, owner/manager at Lee Valley, said: “We have a big open space here so it was easy enough to manage. If someone was coming in with two or three horses, they could be on the gallop while others would be tacking up and so on. It was only a minor inconvenience really.

“With that said, while the number of users stayed the same, the number of horses galloping at Lee Valley was significantly down.

“Around March, April time, that would be our busiest time, you’d have your point-to-point horses, your National Hunt horses and then the breezers coming in.

“Normally you could have 350-400 horses every week which would include the on-site trainers like Dermot McLoughlin and David Dunne. During the lockdown, we’ve been down to around 20%, maybe 50-60 horses a week.

“Everyone was still using the gallop but a lot of people just had let their horses off. A lot of people around here would be National Hunt, so with no racing on, they let their horses off.

“It was kind of funny the way things developed through the lockdown. Things would go quiet for a couple of days and then a little bit of news would come from somewhere that racing might be starting back next week and then you’d get a burst of action for two or three days.

“Not long after Easter the IHRB sent around a message to trainers to get their passports up to date and have them sent in electronically. I think that gave people a false dawn that a return to racing was imminent so for a week after that, there was a burst of people using the gallops.

“It’s only now, with racing officially announced to come back on the 8th, that things are getting back to normal somewhat and there has been a more steady flow of horses each day.”