TRADITION is being increasingly discarded in racing. It was a surprise to see Thurles race on a Monday last month – it was on January 5th and this meeting would traditionally have been staged on January 7th, the day after Little Christmas.

Tinkering with race dates is very common these days in Britain. Now they are talking about returning the July Cup to a Thursday and there is even talk of moving the Epsom Derby back to its old Wednesday slot.

In my opinion Bellewstown and Kilbeggan have changed their dates too often. They were both early adopters of Saturday evening racing but, to give Kilbeggan its dues, it has since realised the folly of its ways and now the track only has one Saturday evening fixture, down from three at one stage. The Co Westmeath track has more or less returned to its Monday and Friday slots.

Bellewstown continues to race on Saturday evenings but, looking at the fixture list, as there are only five Saturday evening meetings in the entire year, it is reasonable to surmise that they are not proving as popular as had been hoped.

There are only a couple of Saturday evening point-to-points, the nature of the calendar minimising the opportunities. From what I can gather the Athlacca meeting is hit-and-miss with the crowds and Lisronagh attracts a big attendance though it probably would do so even on a Monday as this is the heart of point-to-point country. Generally speaking there is nothing to match Sunday pointing.

In 1988 Fairyhouse moved the Irish Grand National to a Saturday and it was won by Perris Valley, ridden by Brendan Sheridan, now clerk of the course there. The Saturday experiment did not work and, with the exception of the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001, the big race is always run on Easter Monday.

I never miss the National Coursing Meeting at Clonmel though that too has moved around the calendar. This three-day meeting was traditionally held from Monday to Wednesday but two years ago the starting date was moved to Saturday for a three-year trial period.

I was not in favour of this change and still believe it was a mistake. This year’s National Meeting was due to close last Monday but the frosty weather saw it postponed until this Sunday when it unfortunately clashes with Hennessy Gold Cup day. As everyone knows there is a lot less competition from other sporting events, both live and televised, in mid-week so I hope tradition is reinstated and the coursing returns to its long-established dates.

Bernard Barry is an on-course bookmaker on the Eastern point-to-point circuit