ON Tuesday there is a unique race meeting in Ireland, one of its kind in this country or Britain. This year sees the 149th running of an annual event that was first recorded in 1868 when it was held in conjunction with the Boyne Regatta, and was a mere side show to the rowing! This is the Laytown races.

One of the first stewards at the races was Charles Stewart Parnell, an Irish nationalist politician and one of the most powerful figures in the British House of Commons in the 1880s.

Tuesday’s stewards are no less distinguished and will comprise Colin Magnier, Mary Cosgrave (daughter of another famous Irish politician), Roy Craigie, Hugh Ferguson and Robert Dore.

Laytown races occupies a special position on the racing calendars of Britain and Ireland as it is the only race meeting staged on a beach and run under the rules of racing.

The meeting is held at the small seaside resort bearing the meeting’s name, less than 30 miles north of Dublin. Taking the M1 Dublin to Belfast motorway, racegoers exit at Junction 7 heading to Julianstown and on to Laytown.

A 10-minute walk from Laytown railway station will also give those travelling to the meeting easy access, with regular services from Drogheda and Dublin’s Connolly Station. The first race next Tuesday is at 3pm and the journey time from Dublin is about 50 minutes by train. The racecourse also operates a courtesy bus service from Laytown station.

Manager Kevin Coleman, who occupies the same position at Bellewstown, is in charge of this unique raceday and it comes at the end of the racing season at his other track.

Last year more than 7,500 people attended the races at Laytown, a massive increase of 35% on the previous year. Hopefully weather conditions will play their part in making this year’s renewal as successful again.

Such is the attraction of this annual one-day event that in the early 1990s the BBC made a documentary about it called Racing The Tide, while it has also featured on many specialist programmes too. With increasing health and safety regulations, many changes have been made to the race meeting over the years.

While racing formerly included horses making a U-turn, with racegoers just feet away from them on the beach, today all races are run in a straight line and over six and seven furlongs only. The number of runners is also restricted now to 10. Racegoers too are safely ensconced behind barriers in what is known locally as ‘the race field’.

Given the special nature of the races, the Turf Club has a number of specific conditions applying to the meeting, and these include the fact that all runners must have started at least three times and be aged four years or older. While the use of starting stalls is conditional on the state of the ground, no runner at the meeting is permitted to compete wearing blinkers, visors or any form of head or cheek adornment. Inexperienced riders are also not permitted to participate.

Visitors to the races at Laytown are guaranteed a great day’s sport in a special setting.

One wonders what the Aga Khan and his wife made of the meeting when they attended in person in 1950. His sole runner on the day was Astrida, trained by Hubert Hartigan and ridden by John Power, and she won the Julianstown Plate over 10 furlongs and enriched His Highness by £100.

The daughter of Court Martial was later sent to the USA and all of her eight foals won there.