With today being St. Patrick's Day, fitting harness racing news has come from across the pond. Reports indicate that officials with the Irish Trotting & Harness Racing Federation have spoken out on proposed
by-laws which would ban training on beaches at Inchydoney and Rosscarbery.
An article by irishexaminer.com states that the bylaw looks to see horses banned from the beaches between 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
In the report, Michael Duggan, part of an ITHRC delegation which spoke with councillors at a meeting in Clonakilty yesterday, was cited as saying that Fáilte Ireland had used images of horses galloping across beaches for its tourism campaigns.
He also said horses had to be trotted on hard sand, and if they were forced to train them on roads there would be safety implications with traffic.
Donal Murphy, also part of the ITHRC delegation, was cited as saying that last year was the most successful for ITHRC members in West Cork, with many of them winning prestigious races in Wales and Scotland.
He proposed that harness racing would be a major tourist attraction on the beaches and that organized races in the late 1980s and 1990s at Inchydoney attracted huge crowds.
(With files from irishexaminer.com)