A NOTICE issued by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board this week may have slipped under the radar.

Headed ‘Amendments to Clonmel and Roscommon fixtures’ the statement revealed that Clonmel’s fixture on June 6th will be an all-hurdles card while Roscommon on June 9th will be chases only. Why? “Due to operational reasons relating to watering at both racecourses”.

A news story in The Irish Field last weekend hinted this was coming. Wexford Racecourse manager Eddie Scally was quoted as saying “It can be expensive providing summer jumping ground” and clerk of the course Lorcan Wyer suggested “If the dry spell continues you could see some flexibility in race programming.”

What it all boils down to is that it makes no sense, financially or environmentally, for a racecourse to water both its hurdle track and chase track for the same meeting. In fact it’s virtually impossible, says Roscommon manager Michael Finneran.

Roscommon staged a flat card on Monday. There were 69 runners across the seven races and only one non-runner due to ‘change in ground’.

A huge amount of man hours went into providing safe ground, Michael told us. “The secret to coping with a dry spell is to get ahead of it and start watering early, but we had racing the previous Monday so we were limited to what we could do.

“We use one tanker pulled by a tractor. We start at 5am for four or five hours and then do another four or five hours in the evening, often finishing as late as 12.30pm. I stay with the driver to make sure all the racing surface is covered evenly.”

Only the biggest tracks currently have an in-built watering system but Michael feels that Roscommon and others will have to seriously consider the investment.

“The days of the tractor and trailer are coming to an end. It gets harder and more expensive every year,” he says. Roscommon currently collects 20,000 gallons of rainwater in its own tanks but the dream is to have a “lagoon system” which could collect up to a million gallons of rain during the winter months. A distribution system would still be required but it has been done at Kilbeggan and so why not Roscommon and Clonmel?

Michael said: “We have permission to install the system but not the money. We are still paying for the €800,000 new weighing room we opened in 2019 but watering is a big issue. Normally the ground at Roscommon in May is soft or heavy!”

In the meantime the country racecourses will continue to box clever and share race programmes if it means they can focus on watering one track per meeting.