LAST weekend the Louth Foxhounds were twice blessed with a dry, sunny day and a large crowd at their new venue of Bellurgan Park.

The track is a long three miles and, combined with Sunday’s soft to heavy going, it wasn’t surprising to see the times range from 7.17 minutes in the opening four-year-old mares’ maiden to 7.43 in the concluding six-year-old and upwards geldings’ maiden for novice riders. The venue doesn’t provide viewing quite as good as Tallanstown but if you walked down the middle of the track you could see all but the first of the five fences.