2020 Irish horse racing fixture list announced

Seven additional fixtures have been allocated for theIrish racing calendar in 2020, a move that will see the totalnumber of fixtures increased to 370.   The Fixture List for 2020 was approved by the Board of Horse RacingIreland at their meeting yesterday.   The seven additional fixtures have been allocated to Cork (July24), The Curragh (September 26), Kilbeggan (July 10), Listowel (May30), Naas (August 23), Sligo (October 23) and Tramore (July 8).   To help ease pressure on stable staff and trainers, there will alsobe six blank Sundays in 2020, matching the total for this year.   Next year’s Fixture List also sees changes to theCurragh’s Derby festival, reverting to the traditionalFriday-to-Sunday schedule – and the Irish Grand Nationalmeeting, which changes for the first time to a Saturday-to-Monday schedule.   Listowel’s seven day Harvest Festival 2020 will begin laterin the month of September (Sunday 20) to avoid a clash with theNational Ploughing Championships.   Announcing the 2020 Fixture List, Brian Kavanagh, ChiefExecutive of HRI, said: “There will be370 racemeetings in the Fixture List next year, which reflects the most recent industry figures which showed thenumber of horses in training continuing to rise, and  strongaverage field sizes.   “Our priority continues to be facilitating opportunities forthe horse population in Ireland which is essential to growing theindustry here.  With increasing numbers of horses in training,which in turn provides jobs all over the country, it is appropriateto provide increased opportunities.   “We had very strong applications from racecourses seekingextra fixtures and I congratulate those tracks which have beensuccessful. The Curragh, Naas and Cork have undergone muchdevelopment work in recent times while Kilbeggan, Sligo, Tramoreand Listowel are immensely popular tracks in different parts of thecountry.”   Dundalk’s early season schedule will cease on April 22 tofacilitate their timetable for the replacement of the currentsurface with a view to the work being completed in early June, amonth ahead of their first summer fixture on Sunday, July 12, withtheir traditional August 15 date also reinstated next year.   BrianKavanagh said: “The HRI Board has agreed thatthere should be at least a month between the completion of thetrack replacement works and the first summer fixture in Dundalk toensure that the surface is properly bedded down with appropriatetrials taking place prior to racing recommencing on the newpolytrack surface.”   The Curragh fixture list for 2020 sees a number of changes to its2019 schedule. These include reverting to its traditional earlierstart date for the year, Sunday, March 29. There will also be areduction in the number of the Curragh’s Friday fixtures(down from seven to three), with one Wednesday and one Saturdayevening being trialled. Additionally, the Derby Festival willrevert to its traditional Friday evening/Saturday/Sunday schedule,with the Irish Derby on the Saturday.   BrianKavanagh said: “We have moved two of theCurragh’s Friday evening fixtures to a Wednesday and aSaturday on a trial basis. The Curragh wishes to evaluate what daywill work best for evening meetings and these tweaks should allowthem best assess this.”    The Fixture List for 2020 matches the 2019 list with six blankSundays, though the dates will differ next year, namely: April 26,June 21, July 26, August 30, September 6 and December 13.  Inaddition to the six completely blank Sundays, there are also fiveother Sundays during the Flat Turf season on which there is no Flatracing (two in June and one each in August, September and October)while there are nine Sundays with no National Hunt racing in theApril to September period.   The opening and closing race meetings of the Flat turf season willcontinue to be run at Naas on Sunday March 22 and Sunday November 1respectively.   Thedates of the major racing Festivals for 2020 willbe: