ROSCOMMON racecourse will open its doors to the general public next Saturday afternoon (June 1st) to provide an opportunity of a behind-the-scenes look at their new facilities.

A new weighroom, jockeys’ room, media room and medical care area have all been added in a project that cost €800,000. Roscommon put up 20% (€160,000) of this total, while the remainder was largely aided by Horse Racing Ireland’s Racecourse Capital Development Programme.

Roscommon manager Michael Finneran said: “We want to open the doors to the public so they can see all the work that has been done, as they wouldn’t be able to on a raceday.”

Roscommon has also improved the Tote building and restaurant facilities in recent years.

Finneran reported that the latest improvements have been well received by jockeys, trainers and other industry professionals, some of whom also praised the state of the ground at the track’s most recent fixture. Roscommon had to cancel two of their chases during an extended period of warm weather last July.

“Like all tracks, we’ve had a pretty hard time of it but we can’t complain too much because we’ve dodged a few bullets with regards to ground in seasons gone by. That July 10th meeting is our only mixed meeting, so it can prove tricky to water all the tracks at the same time and it’s quite costly.

“It’s always nice to get positive feedback – Shane Lyons came to me to compliment the surface and tweeted his opinion as well.

“We always aim to produce the nicest ground we can but if any jumps trainer rings me to enquire, I’d be telling them ‘don’t come unless you have a summer horse’, it’s just the way it is.”

The racecourse is open to all next Saturday between 1pm-3pm, and refreshments will be provided.