It’s a long way to Tipperary goes the song, but as ITV viewers will discover, it is an Irish County where they do things differently.
First there’s Tipperary itself, soon to be the site of Ireland’s new all-weather track, and that is situated at…er….Limerick Junction Station!
And then there’s Thurles, scene of Saturday's live TV action and widely and affectionately thought of, even though it is on Turf, as Ireland’s first all-weather track, famous for its ability to be raceable, and often not even bottomless when the rest of Ireland is under feet of water and snow.
Indeed just a few years ago, when Jack Frost seemingly took up squatters rights and the minus stayed for days on end it led to a lovely exchange on twitter between two Irish racing pressmen.
‘Yikes’, wrote one ‘Thurles called off at 48 hours notice!’
The other responded ‘And hell will freeze over on Monday!’
Thurles is Ireland’s only privately owned racecourse - it has been in the hands of the Molony family for generations, and while the facilities, which won’t be tested this weekend, are unique in Irish Racing in so far as they have been refreshed rather than replaced - and enjoyed by an adoring Supporters Club, the track is as good as any.
Right-handed, it has a quite stiff climb up the back straight and what can be a difficult fence across the top on the approach to the home turn - not that David Mullins will thank you for reminding him as that was where he had his horrible fall back last October.
Its recent roll of honour for its flagship Kinloch Brae Chase has included Don Cossack and Sizing John, both en route to Cheltenham Gold Cup glory.
Yes Thurles is unique - you would struggle to compare it to a British circuit and just about the only person not welcome there would be journalist David Ashforth, still persona non grata after giving the track the lowest marks on either side of the water in his Racecourse Ratings some 15 years ago. He obviously never tried the outstanding beef rolls.
But it can add its first appearance on ITV on Saturday to a history that also includes two great landmarks.
It was at Thurles, in a town where the GAA Semple Stadium has a capacity six times the size of the town's population, that a certain Mr W P Mullins trained his first winner.
But that’s not all - alongside sits a race on March 26 1982 when a 17-year-old apprentice rode a horse called Legal Steps, trained by Jim Bolger, to record his first winner as a jockey.
Whatever happened to AP McCoy (7)?
