AS Ballinrobe, Loughbrickland and the two-day Killworth meetings have been lost from the original fixture list which was released during the summer, there are now 25 fixtures scheduled to take place between now and the second week of December, which is just one down on the 26 fixtures which took place last autumn.

With the small decrease in the number of fixtures, combined with an expected rise in the number of hunter certificates once the season kicks off, it is hoped that we will witness an increase in the number of runners per fixture on last autumn. It should also be recalled that last autumn was very dry, which undoubtedly affected field sizes and the quality of the racing.