Irish Derby 2010 - Leopardstown

[brockguy]

and all the other Irish classics -

from racingpost:
LEOPARDSTOWN will be the temporary home for all five Irish Classics in 2010, and for the 2009 Irish St Leger, following the Turf Club's decision to delay construction work on the €100 million redevelopment of the Curragh until next year.

There will be no race meetings held at the Curragh after the Phoenix Stakes meeting on July 26, 2009 until the start of the 2011 season, and yesterday Brian Kavanagh, chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland, confirmed that Leopardstown will stage the Irish Classics to enable construction work at the Curragh to be completed.

Kavanagh said: “Seven Curragh fixtures from August 2009 to the end of the 2009 season will be re-allocated in the 2009 fixture list, which will be published at the end of this month.

“Those fixtures will include the 2009 Irish St Leger meeting which will be held at Leopardstown, where all five Irish Classics will be staged in 2010.”

Dermot Weld and John Oxx train at the Curragh and gave their backing to Leopardstown.

Oxx said: “There was always the possibility that this situation would arise. Leopardstown is a very good track with very good facilities and I'm sure it will be a suitable home for the Classics while the work at the Curragh is being carried out.”

Weld said: “Leopardstown is a world-class racecourse and is an excellent choice as the venue for the Classics.”
Leopardstown manager Tom Burke welcomed the announcement and said: “We're excited at the news that we will be staging all the Classics here. It will make 2010 a very busy year for us but it is a challenge we are looking forward to.”

The delay is the latest to have beset the redevelopment of the Curragh, plans for which were announced early in 2006. While planning permission was received from Kildare County Council in October that year, the decision was appealed and a verdict deferred on nine separate occasions until permission was finally received in February this year.

Turf Club chief executive Denis Egan said of the latest delay: “The decision was taken for logistical reasons, which started with the problems that arose with the planning process.

“Nobody could have envisaged the project would spend almost 16 months with An Bord Pleaneala after we received planning permission from Kildare County Council in October 2006. Due to the combined effect of the long delays involved with appeals against the planning permission, and the changing economic conditions, we are re-evaluating all aspects of the redevelopment and it may be necessary to re-tender certain aspects of the project.

“We're confident funding will not be an issue. We could have started construction a few months earlier, but that would have meant losing the Irish Derby in 2009 as well as 2010, and that was something we did not want to do.

“We expect the project to be delivered within the new time scale and in time for the start of the 2011 season.”