THEATRE of dreams. That is what the racecourse is. Now we are counting down to the resumption of racing on Monday week, the last of the major European racing nations to do so. One man who is very relieved to see the sport back is the chief executive of the Association of Irish racecourses, Paddy Walsh.

On Thursday he told me: “There is great excitement around the industry about our return to racing, albeit behind closed doors, from June 8th, and everybody is looking forward to it.”