Beef or Salmon was due to run in the day's feature race

Organisers decided that it would be impossible to find a slot in the busy racing calendar to cater for the event.

The opening two races of Saturday's card did take place, but the estimated 8,000 spectators then had to leave the course following telephone warnings.

The abandoned races included the James Nicholson Wine Merchant Champion Chase.

It was the feature race with Beef Or Salmon scheduled to face War of Attrition.

The meeting has developed into one of the most popular in the Irish racing calendar.

The track was preparing for the third race at 1410 GMT when all those present were forced to evacuate the grandstands and were ushered into the centre of the course.

Police helicopters flew over the track advising spectators to leave over a loud hailer, and people were reported to be calm and unpanicked, although disappointed the meeting had been called off.

The free bet we are giving is equivalent to half the entrance fee on Boxing Day Down Royal chairman Jim Nicholson

But police confirmed on Monday that the the bomb threat had been an elaborate hoax.

Peter Eastwood, one of the senior bookmakers, said: "It is a disaster for such a major sporting event in Northern Ireland to be disrupted."

Down Royal Racecourse manager Mike Todd expressed his sadness after the abandonment of the meeting.

He said: "We wish to thank all the racegoers for their co-operation during the evacuation of the racecourse and assure our customers that all bets placed on races not run will be refunded through their bookmakers."

Down Royal will offer a free �5 tote bet to racegoers at their next meeting on Boxing Day to compensate for the five abandoned races on Saturday.

"The free bet we are giving is equivalent to half the entrance fee on Boxing Day," Down Royal racecourse chairman Jim Nicholson told the Racing Post.

"We have suffered substantial losses. We cannot calculate an exact figure at this stage but it's going to run into thousands.

"We are not rescheduling the meeting because there is no space in the calendar."