Vincent Delaney Memorial moves to Tir Prince

Tir Prince Raceway in Wales, UK is delighted and honoured to have been asked to host the 2021 running of The Vincent Delaney Memorial Harness Racing Festival.

The Vincent Delaney Memorial or “VDM” as it is commonly referred to, is the brainchild of Irish brothers and business partners Derek and James Delaney of County Offaly Ireland, who decided that they wanted to run the biggest and best race for 2 year old Standardbred horses in memory of their late brother Vincent who died suddenly in June 2011 at the age of 27.

The three brothers had shared a lifelong love of ponies and horses which culminated in harness racing becoming a serious hobby, pastime and borderline obsession for them in adulthood whereby they worked side-by-side breeding and training standardbred horses for racing under the brand name of “Oakwood Stud”.

Out of this heartbreak the VDM was born as Derek and James organised the first running of the race at Portmarnock Raceway in August 2012, from the outset they strived to make the weekend different by inviting international drivers to compete and securing the services of world renowned commentator “Roger Huston” to do the race calling.

Over the following years momentum built and built with more and more visitors from the USA , Canada, Australia and New Zealand travelling to attend this Irish bonanza of harness racing. Its trademark has become top class harness racing and a tremendously good time being had by all before during and after racing!

So the question is why has it been moved to Wales?
Uncertainty regarding the future of the Portmarnock Track in Dublin, Ireland resulted in the Delaney brothers approaching Tir Prince’s Eric Witherspoon, Racing Manager, and Adam Williams, Track Owner, to see whether it was felt that the race could be moved to Wales.

After lengthy discussions it was mutually agreed that if the race was to be moved from Ireland then it should be moved to Tir Prince Raceway and a deal was secured for the meeting to be held on its traditional weekend of Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th August.

The event has been in the planning stage ever since and we are now 4 weeks away from North Wales hosting the biggest international festival of harness racing that the United Kingdom has ever seen. The economic benefit to the area is huge with over 300 hotel rooms and self contained accommodation being booked from Abergele to Llandudno especially for the VDM Festival.

From Tir Prince Raceway