I’ve never been to Thurles in County Tipperary and, now that the racecourse there has closed, it’s unlikely that I ever will. Which is a shame for local businesses like the Horse and Jockey Hotel, the managers of which might be considering a change of name, because I have no doubt that visitors to the track will have yielded them valuable income.

News of the racecourse’s closure was greeted with shock and disappointment by the Irish racing fraternity. A common comment was that the racecourse would be a great loss because “they could always be relied upon to race in the depths of winter when the weather was bad.”

The quotes from Tony McCoy, Willie Mullins, and the like put me in mind of a remark made by Jean Campbell after winning the Christie’s Foxhunter Steeplechase at Cheltenham with Certain Light. It was around the time that Martin Pipe was rewriting the trainers’ manual and there was much discussion of all-weather facilities. “We’ve got a great all-weather gallop at home.” Campbell said, “It’s a muddy field at the back of the dairy and Certain Light goes out there in all weathers!”

Sadly, racecourses are not rewarded for racing through the winter months in poor weather: crowds are inevitably thinner than on fine summer days (like at Ascot on Saturday where our selection is Prince Of India). The cost of turf repairs are higher after racing on soft or heavy ground, and the field sizes are typically smaller. It’s no surprise at all, to people like me, that a racecourse prized for racing in bad weather might close in the face of “ever increasing industry demands and the cost of doing business.”

Ironically, like Tony McCoy and Willie Mullins, I have a particular love for racecourses which can be relied upon to stage fixtures in the depths of winter when the weather is bad. Apart from the odd blip in arctic conditions, I like to think that Kelso makes a pretty good fist of defying the weather without staging any fixtures at all from the end of May until mid-September. Despite the lack of reward for winter racing, Kelso has two key things in its favour:

Firstly, the racecourse company has a not-for-profit ethos – the business pays no dividends and its only purpose for making profits is to invest in the quality of the racing and the facilities at the track, for the benefit of spectators and participants.

Second is our diverse fixture list, published this week for 2026. Kelso is not just a racecourse that stages fixtures in all weathers throughout the Winter, we host our share of high quality races (like the bet365 Morebattle Hurdle) attracting some of the very best horses in the country to perform in front of ITV Racing’s cameras on Saturdays, and we host other events (like Ladies Day at the end of May) when we catch just enough fine weather to throw a fantastic jamboree for a large crowd of local partygoers.

There’s a raceday for everyone at Kelso in our forthcoming season. Early Bird tickets are available to book online now at www.kelso-races.co.uk. You might never get to Thurles, but you can be assured that the hoteliers and restauranteurs of the Scottish Borders will extend you a warm welcome to Kelso.