'There's a more positive outlook' - Irish racing's flagship academy opens doors to students after residential safety concerns

The Racing Academy & Centre of Education (Race) in Kildare will remain fully operational and open its doors for students this week ahead of trials for upcoming courses, despite residential areas being closed due to safety concerns.

Interim Race chief executive Darren Lawlor reported the outlook looked "a lot more positive" for the academy. Race, which is the national training academy for Ireland's horseracing industry, will continue to offer several courses for current and aspiring jockeys, stable staff, racehorse trainers and breeders.

He said: "The trials for our courses start this week and there are around 52 students turning up at Race between Thursday and Saturday of this week for the start of the trials. We’re looking at how we can deliver that in a non-residential way. 

"It’s all positive this week as we are starting to see some action back on the campus, which is great. The campus and barn are operational and the trials will start back this week, while all our other courses will come in from our other stakeholders in August, so activity will begin to come back."

The issue over safety was uncovered in the residential areas this month, which led to the decision to shut down the accommodation immediately, displacing students and senior residents who were found rooms elsewhere.

Race is conducting a review into the safety of the residential area and Lawlor hopes a solution can be found in the next few weeks.

He said: "The residential area was obviously an integral part of the academy in the past, but we will have to adapt for this year. We are working with our stakeholders to ensure we facilitate the learning for all the people that go to Race. That will continue throughout this year and hopefully into the future. It’s definitely a lot more positive lately.

"As it currently stands, we can only look at what it will look like this year, which is no residential aspect, but we will definitely be looking at if we can deliver courses with the residential area in the future. It was tough for everyone last week, but everybody has rallied around and it’s definitely a more positive outlook now.

"The campus is very much operational. We are finalising the reports on the residential area so we can make a decision and establish the requirements for the future. That is something we will have to decide on over the next couple of weeks."

Read more:

Ireland's racing academy has a magnificent legacy - now it needs proper support at its time of crisis 

‘It’s hard when you get into riding bad horses, not making any money - something had to change’  

Racing Post Members' Club: subscribe for just £9.99 this summer 

The Big Kick-Off 2023-24: get your 80-page edition in the Racing Post on Monday, July 31 - or you can pre-order your copy here.