Having been impressed with Sligo on my first visit there in a while last week, on Monday I made the not-quite-so-long trip to Ballinrobe for the first time this year, primarily to have a good look at the new track that they opened for the first time last month.

It has been a longterm project for the team at Ballinrobe, one that stretches back a decade and involved the moving of an estimated one million tonnes of fill to turn what was part of a golf course into part of a racetrack, but the result will very much change the entire nature of racing at Ballinrobe.