SLIGO racecourse featured in news stories around the world in 2015 when it hosted a visit to the track by the Prince of Wales and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall. The royal couple made a point of going racing during their historic visit to Ireland, and the visit had an unusual but very happy fallout.

The couple presented the prize for the mares’ maiden hurdle named in their honour and won by Mollyanna, owned by Bernard Cloney and trained by Colin Bowe. Following their return to Britain the winner was purchased to race in the colours of the Duchess and Mollyanna is now trained for her by Jamie Snowden.

While the visit by the couple attracted huge security, it was clear they were relaxed and enjoying their day at the races. The racecourse chairman Kieran O’Connor and manager Kathryn Foley played host to the royals and their party and presented them with gifts to commemorate the visit. They were a history of Sligo races by Rory O’Beirne and a plate depicting Benbulben created by local potter Rosemary McGowan.

A half century of racing in Sligo was celebrated back in August 2005, but this is only a part of the story. This was 50 years of racing at Cleveragh, the current site of the racecourse. Racing had been staged at different locations previously and there is a record of a meeting held at Bowmore, Rosses Point back in September 1781. Horseracing continued at this venue for some 60 years or more, and the 1781 meeting was a four-day festival!

A gap in the mid-1880s saw no racing in the locality, but it was revived in 1873 thanks to John Wynne at Hazelwood, but after little more than a decade the meeting returned again to Rosses Point for a further period of a dozen years. The year 1898 saw the Hazelwood venue used again and it was home to Sligo races until 1942, with few exceptions. Until it found its now permanent home there are even records of the Sligo races being run in Mullingar!

More than 7,000 people attended the first meeting at Cleveragh on August 24th, 1955 when the course was officially opened by the Mayor of Sligo. Six races were held and it cost racegoers 10 shillings to enter the grandstand and enclosure, while a ‘popular’ enclosure operated on the inside of the racecourse and cost just two shillings.

Micheal O’Hehir wrote at the time: “After a lapse of some 13 years racing returns to Sligo today, when the new course at Cleveragh, not far from historic Knocknaree Hill and famed Benbulben, should be the meeting place of a big gathering of racegoers not only from County Sligo but from the adjoining counties. Holidaymakers from many nearby seaside resorts should help make this a most enjoyable reunion.

“Not far from Sligo, on the road to Bundoran, lies at Drumcliffe the resting place of the poet Yeats, and the renowned Yeats country is fittingly commemorated on the Lough Gill Maiden Plate and the Benbulben Handicap Hurdle. The course at Cleveragh, set in most picturesque surroundings is in excellent condition with a fine covering of grass and everything has been done to insure the success of the first fixture there”.

Sligo today is still popular with locals and visitors and the final meeting of the 2016 season will be held on Wednesday when Kathryn Foley is expecting a full house, as well as a host of third-level students from a number of educational institutions.

Hopefully racing will attract some new blood among the crowds at Cleveragh next week.