2018 Horse Racing Ireland Fixture List Announced

The 2018 Fixture List for Irish racing has beenreleased today (Monday September 11, 2017) by Horse Racing Ireland.The total number of fixtures has been increased by eight to 363,the highest number of fixtures ever to be run in Ireland.   The racecourses which have each been allocated an additionalfixture in 2018 are Ballinrobe, Bellewstown, Cork, Dundalk, Galway,Killarney, Naas, Navan and Punchestown, while Tipperary will losethe industry fixture which they staged in 2017. These new fixtureshave been allocated on a temporary basis and their appropriatevenues, dates and position in the calendar will be reviewedannually.   These additional fixtures are asfollows:<ul><li style='margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt'> Bellewstown andKillarney will both stage an additional day as part of their verypopular July Festivals to make four and five-day meetingsrespectively.</li><li style='margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt'>Galway will stage athree-day Festival over the October Bank Holiday weekend, whileBallinrobe will run a Friday evening fixture in mid-April whichthey previously staged in2016.</li><li style='margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt'>Three additional midweekwinter National Hunt fixtures have been added (Naas in December,Punchestown in January and Fairyhouse in February), which will betargeted at medium to lower tier horses to provide more jumpsopportunities below the top level during the core wintermonths.</li><li style='margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt'>Additional Flat fixtureshave been included in the Autumn programme at Cork, Navan andDundalk which is the time when most required by the horsepopulation.</li></ul>Other principal features of the 2018 fixture listare:<ul><li style='margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt'>There will be five Sundayswithout Flat racing during the summer months so as to ease theworkload for stable staff during the busiest months of theyear.</li><li style='margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt'>The Sunday before Christmas(December 23rd) has been left blank at the request ofthe Irish Stable StaffAssociation. </li><li style='margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt'>The number of mixedmeetings has been reduced from 28 to 19, of which only three willnow be staged outside Festival meetings, to aid with the staffingof meetings and to reduce costs fortrainers/jockeys.</li><li style='margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt'>The Curragh will stage 18fixtures, once again using temporary facilities, during a truncatedseason from May 11th to September16th.</li><li style='margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt'>Leopardstown will stage anew two-day National Hunt Festival on the weekend of February3rd and 4th featuring the Irish ChampionHurdle and the Irish GoldCup.</li><li style='margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt'>Longines Irish ChampionsWeekend will be run at Leopardstown on Saturday 15thSeptember and the Curragh on Sunday 16thSeptember.</li></ul>Overall, in terms of the overall Flat/National Hunt(NH) split, it is estimated that Flat races will increase by 32 (to1135) while NH races will increase by 22 (to 1434). This reflectsthe improvement in Flat average field sizes which were up by 0.63runners per race for the first eight months of 2017 compared to thesame period last year (from 10.48 to 11.11), while NH field sizeswere up by 0.45 runners per race from 11.24 to 11.69.   Announcing the 2018 Fixture List, Brian Kavanagh, ChiefExecutive of HRI, said:   “The 2018 Fixture List will feature the highest number ofrace meetings staged in Ireland to date, with 363 fixtures beingscheduled, 325 on turf (up seven) and 38 on the All Weather (upone). In recognition of the additional workload that this willplace on those working in the industry, HRI has increased to fivethe number of Sundays with no Flat racing during the summer monthsto give stable staff some welcome breaks. HRI has also accommodatedother requests from the Irish Stable Staff Association to reducethe number of mixed meetings where possible, especially outside theFestival meetings, and to leave the Sunday before Christmas(23rd December) as a blank day.   “It is great to be able to develop the Festivals atBellewstown and Killarney and create a new one at Galway over theOctober Bank Holiday weekend.  This is a result of the successof their existing Festivals and a great credit to the racecoursesin question.   “The HRI Board has again agreed that the Curragh shouldcontinue to stage a shortened season during 2018 featuring all itsmajor Classic racedays and the second leg of Longines IrishChampions Weekend. The continued co-operation of Naas and Navan inaccommodating early and late season Curragh fixtures should benoted.    “We have added three midweek industry days for National Huntracing at Naas, Punchestown and Fairyhouse, one each in the monthsof December, January and February. This will allow the provision offurther opportunities for medium to lower tier horses which willhopefully encourage more jumps horses to be kept in training duringthis core Winter period of the National Huntseason.”