FOLLOWING the much publicised collapse in hunter certificate numbers, it is unsurprising that field sizes have taken a notable hit, however this has not been helped by some elements to the fixture list.

As an example, this spring in the north, four days of racing took place within a seven-day period, as the two-day Easter fixture at Loughanmore preceded a similar two-day fixture at Largy. With the Loughanmore meetings taking place on the Saturday and Monday of the bank holiday weekend, the Largy meeting followed just four days later running on the Friday and Saturday of that same week. In previous years, Loughanmore had held a Monday-Tuesday meeting which would have further complicated the situation had that meeting not altered its dates.

Unsurprisingly, three of those race days feature towards the bottom of the overall number of runners for all fixtures held between February and April. Loughanmore’s Easter Monday meeting producing 36 runners, whilst 37 horses and 43 horses respectively were declared at Largy.

NORTHERN SEASON

Despite no racing in the north having taken place between Kirkistown on 26th November and Tyrella on 28th January, and the northern season finishing up today at Necarne, with three weekends of the season remaining, there is surely an opportunity to space out some of the action, with racing having taken place on every weekend in the north from the beginning of March to this weekend, with the exception of just one weekend April 8th/9th.

Elsewhere, the delay re-scheduling the cancelled fixture at The Pigeons resulted in six race days in the midlands region taking place within a five week period between mid-March and mid-April. The Pigeons, the two-day Durrow fixture and Castletown-Geoghegan were run on three consecutive weekends. Following a break of just one weekend, Oldcastle and Stradbally took place on successive days over the Easter bank holiday weekend, having originally been scheduled to take place on the same day.

It is no surprise that with such a congested period of racing within this region, that the number of runners were some of the lowest nationally among the three-month period. Four of these six race days saw less than 40 runners declare.

In particular the Stradbally fixture was particularly badly hit. 12 months ago, it boosted the third highest number of runners for the period, with 74 runners from 129 entries. This time around it has dropped into the bottom three, with just 35 runners from 65 entries.

Whilst the majority of the programme congestion falls within this three-month period, the far-from-ideal scheduling is not just isolated here.

The scheduling of Rockfield and Corbeagh House on successive Sundays during the autumn was bizarre, given that the two fixtures are within 50 kilometres of each other, and were the only two fixtures in the Roscommon, Longford, Sligo region during the entire autumn campaign. Unsurprisingly, with both trying to attract runners from the same catchment area, one was particularly badly hit. Corbeagh House attracting just 25 runners across a six-race card.

In previous years, the abundance of horses who were looking to run between the flags, ensured that so many fixtures were oversubscribed. This resulted in a situation where hunts could select dates without a real consideration for how it fitted within the context of other meetings set to take place within the same region at the same time of the year.

DEMAND IN THE FINAL WEEKS

At present, the fixture list is congested during the peak months of the season, particularly March and April, and it is during these months in particular that the most disappointing number of runners has occurred.

After this weekend, only the southern region will stage fixtures, with the east, north and west all having finished up for the season. Despite 23 fixtures taking place last month, just 12 will take place in May with only one meeting set to be staged next weekend at Dromahane.

However, with many handlers still looking for opportunities to run their horses before the season draws to a close, there is a demand for meetings in these final weeks.

Last year, of the eight meetings which took place over the final three weekends of the season, four received entries in excess of 110, with the Dromahane fixture alone attracting 164 entries. In recent weeks we have already seen sales companies sponsoring the cost of watering at many fixtures, and with better weather conditions likely, it is an ideal time of the year to attract bigger attendances to outdoor events.

With so many hunts putting in such excellent work to promote their own events to a wider audience and with additional attractions being added to the day which are enticing new people through the gates, it would be such a shame for the core attraction of the day, the racing on the track, to be the one element to disappoint. Small field races, with just two, three and four runners are becoming far too common and are drifting very close to a dreaded walkover situation.

RESTRICTIONS

It is not a straightforward issue to resolve immediately however, as the Turf Club do not plan when fixtures are scheduled, whilst for many hunts, moving dates is not practical. This may be due to a variety of reasons including restrictions from landowners as to when they can use the land their race meetings take place on.

As the initial impact from an increased foal crop is now beginning to be positively felt within the four-year-old maiden division, it is hoped that some forward thinking could result in a more balanced programme until those increases have spread across all categories.