Killarney will now stage a 5-day Festival in July© Photo Healy Racing
Horse Racing Ireland has released the fixture list for 2018 and the total number of race meetings will hit a new record number of 363, an increase of 8 from this year.
Bellewstown and Killarney will each have an extra day added to their July fixtures making them four and five day Festivals respectively.
The Curragh will replicate this season's fixtures as the second year of the redevelopment continues with 18 meetings between early May and Irish Champions Weekend in mid-September.
The Irish Champions Weekend will take place on the third weekend in September, Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th, the traditional date for the GAA's All Ireland Football Final which is now set to take place at the end of August.
The number of mixed cards (National Hunt and Flat races at the one race meeting) will be reduced from 28 to 19 with all but 3 of them taking place at Festival meetings.
The will be five Sundays during the summer months with no Flat racing so as to ease the workload for stable staff during the busiest months of the year.
The Sunday before Christmas (December 23rd) has been left blank at the request of the Irish Stable Staff Association.
Brian Kavanagh, Chief Executive of HRI said: “The 2018 Fixture List will feature the highest number of race meetings staged in Ireland to date, with 363 fixtures being scheduled, 325 on turf (up seven) and 38 on the All Weather (up one). In recognition of the additional workload that this will place on those working in the industry, HRI has increased to five the number of Sundays with no Flat racing during the summer months to give stable staff some welcome breaks. HRI has also accommodated other requests from the Irish Stable Staff Association to reduce the number of mixed meetings where possible, especially outside the Festival meetings, and to leave the Sunday before Christmas (23rd December) as a blank day.
“It is great to be able to develop the Festivals at Bellewstown and Killarney and create a new one at Galway over the October Bank Holiday weekend. This is a result of the success of their existing Festivals and a great credit to the racecourses in question.
“The HRI Board has again agreed that the Curragh should continue to stage a shortened season during 2018 featuring all its major Classic racedays and the second leg of Longines Irish Champions Weekend. The continued co-operation of Naas and Navan in accommodating early and late season Curragh fixtures should be noted.
“We have added three midweek industry days for National Hunt racing at Naas, Punchestown and Fairyhouse, one each in the months of December, January and February. This will allow the provision of further opportunities for medium to lower tier horses which will hopefully encourage more jumps horses to be kept in training during this core Winter period of the National Hunt season.”
