FLAT racing will be given a bigger platform next summer when at least one good quality flat meeting will be staged each weekend.

Following calls from trainers, Horse Racing Ireland has moved a number of flat meetings from midweek dates to Saturdays and Sundays. Naas have moved two midweek dates to Sundays, one from the June bank holiday weekend and one from a Wednesday evening in June.

Michael Grassick, chief executive of the Irish Racehorse Trainers’ Association, said: “We felt that there were too many weekends during the peak flat season when there was no flat racing taking place. On several Saturdays you can see many of our flat jockeys forced to go to the UK for rides. The balance wasn’t right.”

Grassick said that Leopardstown’s Thursday night meetings were cited as a reason why National Hunt races often held a prominent place in the weekend summer schedules.

The 2016 turf flat season in Ireland will start just two days after the Cheltenham Festival, having been brought forward a week. Grassick commented: “There’s a danger that the ground might be a bit soft but we felt starting the turf season a week later on March 27th was too late.”

Although the number of ‘permanent’ fixtures stays steady at 335 next year, HRI has created six additional meetings “allocated on a one-year-only basis to provide opportunities at times when there is the greatest demand from the horse population”. Four of the six meetings are flat fixtures.

“We felt that some of the better tracks were not being utilised to their best advantage,” said Grassick, “particularly tracks like Naas, Navan and the Curragh which can stage races over five and six furlongs. It’s nice to know that the authorities are listening.”

EASTER PROBLEM

The late-March timing of Easter in 2016 places Fairyhouse relatively close (a nine-day gap) to the Cheltenham Festival, although it means a break of two weeks to Aintree and more than four weeks to the Punchestown Festival.

Due to the location of Easter, Cork will stage its traditional student day on the Monday of Cheltenham week (March 14th) on a one-off basis. Galway has moved the third day of its September meeting into October (Tuesday 11th) to create a more suitable date for their student day, a change which should also be beneficial from a horse population perspective.

Laytown will clash with the Tuesday of the Listowel Festival – this is unavoidable due to the need to work around appropriate tidal timings.

The normal two-day end of season meeting at Leopardstown in late October has been split up to provide flat racing on successive Sundays (October 23rd and 30th).

Brian Kavanagh, chief executive of HRI, said: “I am pleased that we have been able to retain the same overall number of fixtures for 2016 including, as was the case this year, six additional meetings at times of the season which should be beneficial from a horse population perspective. Irish racing still remains very competitive, with our average field size for the year to date at 10.6 runners per race and a pleasing increase on the flat for entries, declarations and individual runners.”