Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) will be introducing a number of measures designed to improve field sizes, and therefore the competitiveness of racing, starting on Monday, February 1st.

For a three-month trial period, from the start of February to the end of April, in every weight-for-age race where there are less than five declared runners at the 10am declaration time, there will be an automatic supplementary time period of 15 minutes during which additional declarations may be made for that race.

Such declarations will only be accepted by telephone. No withdrawal of a declaration (including any new declarations made after 10am) may be made within this supplementary time period. HRI’s Racing Administration System (RAS) system will continue to display the number of declared runners for this extended time period.

Also, as previously announced, from February 1st for National Hunt racing (and March 20th for the Flat), HRI will change the distribution of prize-money so that placed horses will receive a greater percentage of prize-money (2nd placed horses 20%, 3rd placed horses 10% and 4th placed horses 5% - compared to the current percentages of 17%, 8% and 5% respectively).

Prize-money will also be extended from four to five places in all races (the fifth horse to receive 2.5%) and to six places in all races with a value of €40,000 or more.

Announcing these changes, HRI Director of Racing, Jason Morris stated: "HRI are introducing these measures with the aim of attracting more runners in races which might have historically struggled with small fields and also in attempt to increase the percentage of horses which win prize-money. The 15-minute extension to the declaration deadline for weight-for-age races which have attracted less than five initial declarations will be trialled for a three month period to see whether it has a beneficial impact upon field sizes.

"This change should not have any material impact upon the timing of the release of declarations information. An increase to five or more runners in a race has a very positive impact on betting turnover since it allows for each-way betting. HRI are always striving to improve the competitiveness of Irish racing, notwithstanding the fact that our average field sizes (at 10.73 in 2015) are approximately two runners per race higher than in Britain. We intend to conduct a similar trial in relation to an extension in the entry deadline (for races with smaller initial entries) later in the year.”

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