News of the immediate closure of a quite unique part of the Irish Racecourse family has come as a shock to many, but Thurles Racecourse, where records show racing dated back to the 18th century, was the only privately-owned track in Ireland.
The Molony family have called time having run it for 10 years since Pierce - husband and father - known as ‘Mr Thurles' lost a battle with cancer.
So ends the sport at a venue which was, half jokingly described by some as Ireland’s first all weather track - that part of County Tipperary seeming to provide raceable ground no matter how much snow and rain was falling to the north, south, east and west of it.
The track, a mile and a quarter circuit, has been predominately a jumps venue and in the last decade one of its feature chases, the Kinloch Brae, was won in consecutive seasons by Don Cossack (2016) and Sizing John (2017), who then went on to land the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
It was never short of runners.
In December 2018 a certain Honeysuckle won a Listed Mares Novice Hurdle at the course. But Thurles would often appear in quizzes and the like about a flat race it staged in March of 1992, won by a horse called Legal Steps and trained by Jim Bolger.
The reason? The jockey was a then unheard of teenager with the first success of his career named AP McCoy.
Sadly, though it was in February of this year at Thurles that jockey Michael O’Sullivan took the fall in a pile up that cost him his life.
Thurles was a Thursday staple diet for the Irish jumps community in the winter months with a highlight of a meeting the weekend before Christmas.
It also has a Supporters Club who will be devastated by today's news, which illustrates just what is involved in running a racecourse.
Irish racing will never be quite the same again.
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