VIDEO: ‘The Irish Grand National is so special, it’s our time to shine’

Apart from the odds-on favourite flying past the winning post, there’s nothing moving faster at Fairyhouse than Peter Roe. 

The Ratoath racecourse manager is like a human tornado on race day sweeping from stables to hospitality suites to parade ring to track side, ensuring everything around the Bobbyjo Chase race day card is running as smoothly as the 1999 Grand National champion ever did.
It’s an adrenaline-filled shift for Tipperary-born Roe who shrugs off his daily 270km round-trip commute between Clonmel and south Meath arriving ahead of the horse boxes, jockeys, trainers, connections, punters and 50-odd staff it takes to keep Fairyhouse flying on every one of its 20 race days each year.

February’s Bobbyjo Day brings a great crowd every year, with buses coming from all over the country to enjoy great racing and hospitality but as Roe admits, it’s only the appetiser to the forthcoming annual Fairyhouse Easter Festival and the showcase of the Boylesports Irish Grand National.
The iconic ‘People’s Race’ with a staggering €500k prizemoney will be the most eagerly anticipated event of a mouthwatering three day festival and will come hot on the heels of the Ryanair Gold Cup on Sunday.

 

Staging the Festival requires a mammoth effort from the team at Fairyhouse led by Roe and preparations are well underway to mark another unique occasion despite losing the guts of a week due to the havoc wreaked by Storm Emma and the Beast from the East.
“There’s no such thing as a typical race day because you never know what’s going to be thrown at you. The first thing I do when I arrive here in the morning is walk the track, I have to know what the ground is like. Trainers and owners down the country want to see what we have and it can change overnight with rain, frost, whatever. We aim to get it checked by 7.30am and get it out as quickly as possible via social media, that’s the first priority.”
“After that it’s making sure we’re prepared from front of house to back of house so that people see the best side of us. Starting at the stables we’ll make sure every stall is power-washed and clean before every fixture. We’re very conscious of security and health and that every trainer can be totally confident that the horses they bring to Fairyhouse are entering a clean environment.”
“Our first horses will normally arrive three hours before racing starts by which time our caterers and cleaners and track staff and turnstile teams are all in place. We’re very lucky we have a great crew here who always give of their best and then in the office we’ve a small team who manage all this. Gillian Carey is the operations manager keeping everything ticking over along with Orla Aaron, David O’Connor handles the enormous task of marketing our race meetings, Noel Fanning and James Donoghue do a fabulous job of managing the track. 

“So it’s a very small team supplemented by about 50 people working with us on a race day - 30 on the track and about 20 inside. I describe myself as the conductor and I have to trust everyone to do their jobs and I do.”
Those numbers are just a fraction of what’s required when Bank Holiday Monday comes around and over 30,000 race fans converge on Ratoath.
“There’s 21 races over the (April 1st-3rd) weekend so everything is on a multiplier of what we do on a daily basis but everyone is aiming at that 5pm start on Easter Monday and that cannot be delayed because we’re not ready, so we have to be ready. We’ll have the guts of a 1,000 people here on Easter Monday drawing a wage of some description because of this event, it really is quite special.”
Bank Holiday Sunday is when it all starts with the Ryanair Gold Cup the feature, while Easter Tuesday (April 3rd) is Family Day at Fairyhouse with lots of special activities for younger racegoers.
“Once Lent starts, it’s the 40 day countdown to 5pm on Bank Holiday Easter Monday and the Irish Grand National and that time and date has become fixed in people’s minds. That’s our time to shine. Last year over 350,000 tuned into RTE to watch the Irish Grand National so we have to have the place looking the part.”
Local support for the Easter Festival has always been vital to the success of the ‘People’s Race’ as the Irish Grand National is known. Peter Roe and his team have been busy strengthening local connections and making the National very much about the local community.

“We’re delighted that the people of Meath get behind the Festival here and support us. We had a very successful ‘Let’s Go Grand’ campaign last year where the shop fronts in Ratoath were decked out for the Boylesports Irish Grand National and this year we’re extending that further to Dunboyne and Dunshaughlin and Ashbourne to get the locals to come back racing.
Given the weather events of the last week and how the majority of the country’s weekend sporting calendar was lost, it’s little wonder they keep a close eye on the forecasts in Fairyhouse.
“The one thing we’ll be looking at very closely in the run up to the Easter Festival is the weather forecast. “It’s a key element of Easter where we eat, breathe and sleep every Met Eireann forecast to ensure we have optimum going on the day, and that we have perfect jumping ground.”
And with that Roe jumps up, there’s stables to be checked, owners to greet in the parade to greet.