STATISTICS compiled by Horse Racing Ireland show a significant growth in entries and runners at Dundalk’s winter meetings.

To facilitate demand an extra fixture was hastily arranged this week for next Wednesday night. Despite trainers having less than 24 hours notice, the meeting attracted almost 200 entries.

Shane Doyle of HRI’s racing department said: “We noticed on Monday there were 208 entries for Friday and there would be a lot of balloting [80 horses were denied a run]. The previous Friday there were 110 declarations – the maximum you can have on an eight-race card is 112, so the demand is clearly there.”

Doyle said there is an “understanding” in place with the trainers’ association to divide three-year-old maidens in the spring and two-year-old maidens in the autumn, to give young horses the opportunity to run. “So when we saw on Monday that the two-year-old maiden at Dundalk was likely to be divided - and there were big entries for two other races which could not be divided - we spoke with SIS about the possibility of an extra meeting.”

SIS hold the Irish racing media rights for licensed betting shops and they have made a special contribution towards Dundalk’s winter series since it was established in 2011.

Dundalk’s winter season includes 16 meetings between late September and Christmas. Next year there will be an extra one as the fixture originally scheduled for All-Ireland Sunday has been moved into Christmas week to facilitate a request from the Irish Stablestaff Association.

Doyle said: “The biggest entries were for the last two meetings in 2015, no doubt horses getting a last run in before the three-week break.”

Although the 2017 fixture list is already published, HRI may consider more Wednesday meetings at Dundalk for the 2018 winter season should current trends continue.