Gowran Park General Manager Eddie Scally says he was 'terrified' ahead of opening their golf course last week.
The facility will be the first in the South-East to get back racing - behind closed doors - on June 11th, which thrusts the sport into the limelight as the country slowly begins to reopen.
And while Scally says he's feeling the nerves, he says the resources available from Horse Racing Ireland - in comparison to the Golfing Union of Ireland - gives him more confidence than when their golf course opened on Phase One.
"We were given a group guidelines from the GUI to follow, but we weren't actually told 'we'll have marshals down to help police it'.
"On a raceday there'll be two Covid officers that will be sent down - that don't work with Gowran Park - on top of my own four supervisors, for only about 200 people. I didn't get that on the golf course last Monday.
"I'm quite nervous to make sure everything is right, but I'm so confident because this protocol that has been based on the 10 fixtures that ran behind closed doors."
And for Scally, while acknowledging that the postponement of racing was the right call, the economic impact has been no less felt by the Kilkenny course.
"We've lost seven race meetings already this year.
"In early March one of the things I was most looking forward to was the Irish Open in Mount Juliet - it's 20 minutes down the road from us.
"We could have had a race meeting tonight (Wednesday) with the Pro-Am on that day in Mount Juliet, we were racing again on Monday which would have been the Kilkenny Senior Hurlers day which would have been the day after the Irish Open was completed.
"This was going to be the week to end all weeks in Gowran Park; Gowran, Thomastown, and the local area."
A fascinating chat about the future of racing at Gowran, and indeed across Ireland, can be heard on this week's SportsBeat Xtra.
