RACECOURSE officials will be monitoring the skies over the Christmas period following a number of reports of suspicious drone activity on racedays recently.

There were drone sightings during racing at Fairyhouse, Navan and Naas and reports of a white van with screens and other technology on board parked close to the course on each occasion.

Navan manager Peter Killeen said: “I heard from one of Willie Mullins’s team that they’d seen a drone flying so we sent security down to investigate and they found an English-registered van in a field adjacent to the racecourse.

“There seemed to be screens and other sort of technology in the back and the occupants looked like workmen, wearing hi-vis jackets. They weren’t exactly amicable when approached. The men claimed to have had permission to be on the land but I called the landowner and he knew nothing about it. We called the guards then and they ushered them away.”

A day later another drone was spotted at Naas Racecourse. General manager Eamonn McEvoy reported: “The situation we had was that this white van was parked on the side of a road adjacent to the racecourse. That’s the only time we’ve seen any drone or this van and it was on a raceday, so you don’t have to be Einstein to figure out there’s something going on here.

“I’ve heard of this happening at a few other courses, and one situation where they paid a landowner to come onto the land and fly the drones.”

The obvious issues with drones on racecourses is that they could be a danger to the safety of horses and jockeys. They could also be infringing on the rights of media rights holders, potentially damaging racecourses and betting companies.

The Association of Irish Racecourses has been in consultation with the Garda Siochana and the Irish Aviation Authority with regard to operation of drones during racing but the ruling isn’t clearcut.

AIR chairman Paddy Walsh said: “This isn’t something uncommon. We’ve had situations with people filming from cherrypickers and hilltops before. Drones is the latest thing.

“It’s a tricky situation because someone can park up on land next to a racecourse and fly a drone over the same land, without coming onto the racecourse land. It becomes an issue when they are filming the activity on the racecourse.

“I think this is another case of technology outpacing the law. Obviously we are very keen to protect the intellectual property rights but we need to be able to prove that the person filming is using the footage commercially.”

Drones have been sighted at Irish racecourses previously, notably when a tourist flew one over the parade ring area at Killarney in June 2017, but officials were satisfied that the tourist was unaware of the risk to animals.