THIS is a year to forget for Irish racecourses, having to run behind closed doors for many months now, and still no indication when those doors will be open to welcome paying customers. Last week in The Irish Field the Association of Irish Racecourses’ chairman Conor O’Neill outlined his concerns for the future, as did a number of racecourse chief executives and managers.

This week Horse Racing Ireland announced a number of enhancements to the National Hunt programme, and while these will not directly benefit racecourses in a tangible sense, bringing larger crowds for better-quality races, they are a boost to the racecourse executives. They are a way of saying you do a good job and the racing quality you serve up is worthy of acknowledgement.