One of Ireland’s most famous and best loved horse racing venues is struggling to revise a development plan after its budget was slashed to just €60m from an initial €100m.
 
The Curragh Racecourse, Ireland’s top thoroughbred race-course, in County Kildare, is trying to fit the plan within the new tighter budget.
 
A 72 bedroom hotel was the first casualty of the cutbacks; there are expected to be many more.
 
Dennis Egan, Chief Executive of the Irish Turf Club, which controls the grounds, said that: : 'What we are doing is re-looking at the plans with a view to getting started in the next two to three years.  It will be on a much smaller scale development, but The Curragh needs to be redeveloped and it is not a case of if but when. We have a blank sheet of paper and are starting from scratch again. Hopefully, we can start in 2012-13. We are probably looking at a budget of  60 million euros.'
 
The executive confirmed that a new grandstand was not just badly needed but in fact essential.
 
According to reports the development team are having to undertake a complete revision of the development plan in order to fit within the new figure: “It’s not going to be easy”, said a source close to the Course’s management “but they’re working on keeping the main points of the re-design intact without going over-budget”.