Racing boards to meet at weekend

The chairman of Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), Mr Denis Brosnan, is among three HRI directors who have joined the boards of the Punchestown group of companies.

The new boards will hold their first meeting this Saturday. The directors have to address the significant financial problems which were identified in a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report, and apply themselves to organising the Punchestown Festival, which is due to take place in seven weeks.

As well as Mr Brosnan,who is the chairman and former chief executive of the Kerry Group, the chief executive of HRI, Mr Brian Kavanagh and the former chairman of the Dubai Racing Committee, Mr Michael Osborne, have also joined the Punchestown boards.

Mr Kavanagh said the new appointees meant a "high powered team" was in place to address the difficulties confronting the racecourse. The board of HRI, which met yesterday, also ratified the recent election of Mr Nicholas Bullman as chairman of the Punchestown group.

The appointments by the HRI mean that five of the nine directors on the Punchestown boards were appointed in recent months. Mr John Ross, a solicitor, was appointed at the same time as Mr Bullman.

The directors of the group of companies which run the 460-acre Punchestown racecourse, were involved in a recent High Court case during which it was revealed that a PWC report had found that the centre was not producing enough income to cover expenditure.

"If funds are not made available to repay financiers, the (Kildare Hunt) club and the company (the Blackhall Racing Co Ltd) may lose Punchestown," the report stated.

It also concluded that net assets in the Blackhall accounts at December 31st, 2001, were overestimated by €17.78 million (£14 million), due to the mis-description of liabilities as capital and reserves. Net assets should have been €2.37 million rather than €20.7 million, the report stated.

The court also heard that members of the wealthy Getty family had invested €3.8 million in Punchestown in 1999 as part of the passports for investment scheme.

A company which made the investment on behalf of the Getty family has now claimed the deal is in default.

One member of the Blackhall board said it was hopeful it could open negotiations which would lead to a resolution of the difficulties.