The Costa del Sol is famous for its sun, its mañana lifestyle and its bewildering array of golf courses. To these sirens add another temptress luring British and Irish buyers to southern Spain: horse racing. A new villa-buying phenomenon is up around Costa del Sol's first racecourse, opened last year in Mijas Costa, 15 miles from Marbella. Racing is held on Sunday afternoons in the winter and late at night during the hot summer months and is already attracting reasonable crowds, including British property owners along the coast. Now the talk on the golf course is not :just about stocks and shares, but the merits of bringing racehorses over to train and race in Spain and suitable properties to house both owner and equus. "We have already sold a property to a famous British trainer," says Clive Saxby, deputy managing director of Ocean Estates Marbella. "The racecourse is proving very popular and there are plans to extend the facilities significantly in the next 18 months. We are selling houses to owners and trainers from the UK and Ireland." One trainer who bought near Marbella recently, after 20 years of holidays in Puerto Banus, is Peter Haley. After training jumpers in Yorkshire, he now has 16 horses in training on the Costa del Sol. Two other Englishmen, an Irishman and a Swede also train at Mijas. The racecourse, flanked by the Mediterranean and the mountains, is owned by the local council and will eventually form part of the largest leisure complex on the Costa del Sol, including new homes. "It is early days but I believe there is a great future for racing here as an alternative leisure pursuit to golf," says Haley. "The horses enjoy it and have had no problems with stress and dehydration. The welfare of the horse is paramount, but like UK homeowners over here, they love the climate. You could send over a moderate horse and revitalise him." Haley foresees British owners sending their horses to Spain from November to February to prepare them for racing in Britain. "With the sun on their backs in Spain they will return with coats of silk. Prize money here is not big yet, although much larger purses are on their way," says Haley. "There is only on-course betting, but it might not be long before the laws are relaxed, especially with Gibraltar and the likes of Victor Chandler (the bookmaker) so close." One of Haley's owners is Mike Smallman, chairman of the £80m Thanx Group, one of the UK's fastest-growing companies. Smallman has 37 horses in training, including three in Spain. He was at the Costa del Sol racecourse on the first day of the new season and went villa hunting locally to add to his holiday home in Florida. "Spain is the perfect place to buy. To sun, sea and golf, add racing. It can only enhance the popularity of the coast still further," he says. One development attracting the interest of the racing community is Torre Bermeja, where Ocean Estates is offering frontline beach apartments on the “new golden mile” between San Pedro and Estepona. Prices range from £300,000 for a two bedroom apartment to just under £ 1 m for three and four bedroom penthouses. Bar a global economic crisis, the Spanish property boom seems set to continue, with about 60,000 Britons permanently resident on the Costa del Sol and at least another 250,000 owning holiday homes there. "The Spanish property market is expanding at a remarkable pace," says Alasdair Macdonald, chairman of Ocean Estates. "We are seeing particularly strong demand from the UK market because of the strength of the pound against the peseta. Irish buyers are also out in force."

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