Tralee Racecourse was a horse racing venue in

Tralee Tralee ( ; ga, Trá Lí, ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the Lee River') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in Coun ...

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the cou ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It was located at Ballybeggan Park about two miles to the north east of Tralee town centre. It ceased to operate in 2008 with fixtures transferred to other racecourses. Ballybeggan Park (formerly a deer park owned by the family of

Daniel O’Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

) became the permanent site of Tralee Racecourse in 1898. The racecourse hosted a week long meeting annually in late August as part of the Rose of Tralee International Festival. Many well known racehorses have been successful here including

Dawn Run Dawn Run (1978–1986) was an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse (Deep Run - Twilight Slave) who was the most successful racemare in the history of National Hunt racing. She won the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 1984 and the Chelt ...

(ridden by her then 62-year-old owner, Charmian Hill),

Vintage Crop Vintage Crop (1 March 1987 – 14 July 2014) was a British-bred Irish-trained Thoroughbred racehorse best known for becoming the first northern hemisphere trained runner to win Australia's premier race the Melbourne Cup. The chestnut geld ...

Desert King Desert King (31 March 1994 – 11 August 2021) was a Thoroughbred racehorse. Desert King won the Irish Derby Stakes and Irish 2,000 Guineas and was the sire of 13 stakes winners with 34 stakes wins including Makybe Diva (GB). He was a bay son ...

Monty's Pass Monty's Pass (23 April 1993 – November 2022) was the winner of the 2003 Grand National at Aintree, Liverpool, when ridden by Barry Geraghty, trained by Jimmy Mangan and running in the colours of the Dee Racing Syndicate, a group of owners ba ...

, Vintage Tipple and Alexandrova. There was also a nine hole

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". The ...

within the racecourse but this was closed in 2001. In the early 2000s as the declining standard of facilities at the venue contributed to falling attendances the long-term viability of the racecourse was in doubt. In the

Celtic Tiger The "Celtic Tiger" ( ga, An Tíogar Ceilteach) is a term referring to the economy of Ireland from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, a period of rapid real economic growth fuelled by foreign direct investment. The boom was dampened by a subseque ...

period of economic boom in

the racecourse land became a valuable landbank. In 2007 a majority of the shareholders in the company that owned the racecourse voted to sell it to a property development consortium. The last fixture took place on 1 October 2008 and the final horse race run at Tralee Racecourse was the Denny Havasnack (Q.R.) Race over two miles and one furlong won by 'P'Tit Fute'. The

Post-2008 Irish economic downturn The post-2008 Irish economic downturn in the Republic of Ireland, coincided with a series of banking scandals, followed the 1990s and 2000s Celtic Tiger period of rapid real economic growth fuelled by foreign direct investment, a subsequent pr ...

meant development plans for the racecourse site were never realised and it has since hosted other equestrian events such as point-to-point meetings and pony racing.

References

External links

OSI map of Ballybeggan Park

Satellite view of Tralee Racecourse on Google Maps

American Tourist's video from August 2007 meeting
{{Horse racing in Ireland Former horse racing venues in the Republic of Ireland Sports venues in County Kerry 1898 establishments in Ireland 2008 disestablishments in Ireland Tralee