370
fixtures announced for Irish racing in 2020
Curragh
Derby Festival reverts to traditional Friday-to-Sunday schedule
Six
blank Sundays retained to ease workload on stable staff and help trainers
Seven additional fixtures have been allocated for
the Irish racing calendar in 2020, a move that will see the total number of
fixtures increased to 370.
The Fixture List for 2020 was approved by the Board
of Horse Racing Ireland at their meeting yesterday.
The seven additional fixtures have been allocated to
Cork (July 24), The Curragh (September 26), Kilbeggan (July 10), Listowel (May
30), Naas (August 23), Sligo (October 23) and Tramore (July 8).
To help ease pressure on stable staff and trainers,
there will also be six blank Sundays in 2020, matching the total for this year.
Next year’s Fixture List also sees changes to the
Curragh’s Derby festival, reverting to the traditional Friday-to-Sunday
schedule – and the Irish Grand National meeting, which changes for the first
time to a Saturday-to-Monday schedule.
Listowel’s seven day Harvest Festival 2020 will
begin later in the month of September (Sunday 20) to avoid a clash with the
National Ploughing Championships.
Announcing the 2020 Fixture List, Brian Kavanagh,
Chief Executive of HRI, said:
“There will be 370 race meetings in the Fixture List
next year, which reflects the most
recent industry figures which showed the number of horses in training
continuing to rise, and strong average
field sizes.
“Our priority continues to be facilitating
opportunities for the horse population in Ireland which is essential to growing
the industry here. With increasing
numbers of horses in training, which in turn provides jobs all over the
country, it is appropriate to provide increased opportunities.
“We had very strong applications from racecourses
seeking extra fixtures and I congratulate those tracks which have been
successful. The Curragh, Naas and Cork have undergone much development work in
recent times while Kilbeggan, Sligo, Tramore and Listowel are immensely popular
tracks in different parts of the country.”
Dundalk’s early season schedule will cease on April
22 to facilitate their timetable for the replacement of the current surface
with a view to the work being completed in early June, a month ahead of their
first summer fixture on Sunday, July 12, with their traditional August 15 date
also reinstated next year.
Brian Kavanagh said:
“The HRI Board has agreed that there should be at
least a month between the completion of the track replacement works and the
first summer fixture in Dundalk to ensure that the surface is properly bedded
down with appropriate trials taking place prior to racing recommencing on the
new polytrack surface.”
The Curragh fixture list for 2020 sees a number of
changes to its 2019 schedule. These include reverting to its traditional
earlier start date for the year, Sunday, March 29. There will also be a
reduction in the number of the Curragh’s Friday fixtures (down from seven to
three), with one Wednesday and one Saturday evening being trialled.
Additionally, the Derby Festival will revert to its traditional Friday
evening/Saturday/Sunday schedule, with the Irish Derby on the Saturday.
Brian Kavanagh said:
“We have moved two of the Curragh’s Friday evening
fixtures to a Wednesday and a Saturday on a trial basis. The Curragh wishes to
evaluate what day will work best for evening meetings and these tweaks should
allow them best assess this.”
The Fixture List for 2020 matches the 2019 list with
six blank Sundays, though the dates will differ next year, namely: April 26,
June 21, July 26, August 30, September 6 and December 13. In addition to the six completely blank
Sundays, there are also five other Sundays during the Flat Turf season on which
there is no Flat racing (two in June and one each in August, September and
October) while there are nine Sundays with no National Hunt racing in the April
to September period.
The opening and closing race meetings of the Flat
turf season will continue to be run at Naas on Sunday March 22 and Sunday
November 1 respectively.
The dates of the major racing Festivals for 2020
will be:
Dublin Racing Festival 1st – 2nd February
Cork Easter 11th – 13th April
Fairyhouse Easter 11th – 13th April
Punchestown National Hunt 28th April – 2nd May
Killarney Spring 10th – 12th May
Curragh Guineas 23rd – 24th May
Down Royal Ulster Derby 19th – 20th June
Curragh Derby 26th – 28th June (now Friday to
Sunday)
Bellewstown July 1st – 4th July
Killarney July 13th – 17th July
Curragh Oaks 18th – 19th July
Galway 27th July – 2nd August
Tramore August 13th – 16th August
Killarney August 19th – 22nd August
Longines Irish Champions Weekend 12th – 13th
September
Listowel 20th – 26th September
Down Royal NI Festival of Racing 30th – 31st October
Punchestown November Winter Racing 14th – 15th
November
Fairyhouse Premier Jump Racing Weekend 28th – 29th
November
Leopardstown Christmas 26th – 29th December
Limerick Christmas 26th – 29th December
