Mullingar Racecourse was a

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

venue in

Mullingar Mullingar ( ; ) is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. It is the third most populous town in the Midland Region, Ireland, Midland Region, with a population of 22,667 in the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census. The Counties of M ...

County Westmeath County Westmeath (; or simply ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It formed part of the historic Kingdom of ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It was located at Newbrook about two miles to the southwest of Mullingar town centre alongside the disused Mullingar to Athlone railway line. The racecourse opened at the Newbrook site in 1852 following the completion of the Dublin to Mullingar railway line in 1848. It ceased to operate in 1967. The racecourse was used as a filming location for the 1947 film Captain Boycott. Many local people took part as film extras in a horse racing

sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is cal ...

though some scenes were re-shot at

Naas Racecourse Naas Racecourse is a horse racing venue in Naas, County Kildare, Ireland, approximately 18 miles from Dublin. The course stages both Flat racing and National Hunt racing and in 2010 fifteen race meetings were held there. The Naas Races Company w ...

. The famous Irish steeplechaser

Arkle Arkle (19 April 1957 – 31 May 1970) was an Irish-bred Thoroughbred racehorse. A bay gelding by Archive out of Bright Cherry, Arkle was the grandson of the unbeaten Flat racehorse and prepotent sire Nearco. Arkle was bred by Mary Baker of Mal ...

made his racecourse debut here in December 1961 finishing third in the Lough Ennel Plate, a

bumper Bumper or Bumpers may refer to: People * Betty Bumpers (1925-2018), American activist, First Lady of Arkansas, wife of Dale Bumpers * Dale Bumpers (1925–2016), American politician, governor of Arkansas and senator * Bumper Robinson (born 1974) ...

After its last meeting in July 1967 there were a number of attempts to revive horse racing at the Newbrook site. The most prominent was organised by the famous singer

Joe Dolan Joseph Francis Robert Dolan (16 October 1939 – 26 December 2007) was an Irish singer, entertainer and recording artist. Chiefly known in Ireland for his association with Irish showband, showbands and for his innovative style and high tenor s ...

who put together a syndicate to buy the racecourse and develop it into a multi-purpose venue capable of hosting concerts and conferences as well as race meetings. Eventually the racecourse site was sold in June 1972 to a local

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

for £45,000. A year later it was sold on to the

Industrial Development Authority IDA Ireland () is the agency responsible for the attraction and retention of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) into Ireland. The agency was founded in 1949 as the Industrial Development Authority and placed on a statutory footing a year late ...

for £150,000. On 30 June 1976 the

GAF Materials Corporation GAF is an American manufacturing company based in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey, Parsippany, New Jersey. Operating as a subsidiary of Standard Industries, GAF is the leading roofing and waterproofing manufacturer in North America, with 30 loc ...

opened a factory for manufacturing flooring products on the site. Today the site is an industrial estate occupied by many different businesses.

References

External links

OSI map of Newbrook Racecourse, Mullingar

Satellite view of Newbrook Racecourse on Google Maps

The horse race and whacking shillelagh fight from "Captain Boycott" (1947)
on ''

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

'' * ''

British Pathé British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and cultur ...

'' footage of Mullingar Races
1921
an
1924

Photograph of the pontoon bridge across the Royal Canal allowing access to Newbrook Racecourse (1966)

Photograph of a disused portion of Newbrook Racecourse (2015)

Postcard photo of Newbrook Racecourse
{{coord missing, County Westmeath 1852 establishments in Ireland 1967 disestablishments in Ireland Former horse racing venues in the Republic of Ireland Sport in Mullingar Sports venues in County Westmeath