THE new sprint track at Cork will stage its first races on Friday, May 10th. Close to €500,000 has been spent on the project which will be Ireland’s only straight seven-furlong course.

Track manager Andrew Hogan reported: “The old sprint track was six furlongs and it had undulations. Trainers and jockeys weren’t happy with it. We closed it in June 2017 and bought additional land to extend it. The top-soil was completely stripped and the track was widened and levelled.”

The bulk of the work was completed by November 2017 but it was always the plan to give the track a year to settle down. “We could have opened it last October and we did actually have a small trial, but we didn’t want to start using it in wet weather,” said Hogan.

When the 2019 fixture list was being compiled it was felt that March and April would see heavy ground at Cork, so May was selected as the opening date. However, with the mild spring Hogan is planning a bigger trial later this month.

“Our three-day Easter meeting finishes on Easter Monday. The next day we plan to stage trials on the new track with as many as 10 horses galloping up the full seven furlongs.”

Hogan says the new track will be able to accommodate 26 runners over seven furlongs, 24 at six and 20 at five. The May 10th card will include a new listed race for two-year-old fillies named the Polonia Stakes, and a seven-furlong handicap for horses rated 70-100.