Fairyhouse Easter Festival reverts to 3 days© Photo Healy Racing
Horse Racing Ireland today announced the 2015 Fixture List and the total number of race meetings remains unchanged at 349 for the fourth consecutive year.
The Key points are:
Leopardstown’s two-day meeting in January has been split up so that the fixtures will now be run on successive Sundays (18th & 25th January), with the Boylesports Handicap Hurdle the feature race on Sunday 18th January and the BHP Insurance Champion Hurdle the feature on Sunday 25th January.
The Flat ‘summer’ season starts slightly later than normal, at the Curragh on Sunday 29th March, and concludes with a two-day meeting at Leopardstown on Saturday/Sunday 24th/25th October.
The Easter Festival at Fairyhouse will revert to a three-day meeting (from Sunday to Tuesday 5th–7th April), being ideally positioned in the calendar three weeks after Cheltenham and three weeks before the Punchestown Festival (28th April – 2nd May).
The Bellewstown Festival in July will run from Thursday to Saturday (2nd – 4th July) from its previous Friday to Sunday slot. Fairyhouse has been moved back a week to stage a high-quality Flat card on Sunday 5th July.
Irish Champions Weekend will be run for the second time as a two-day meeting at Leopardstown on Saturday 12th September and the Curragh on Sunday 13th September.
HRI Chief Executive Brian Kavanagh stated: “I am pleased that HRI is able to announce the 2015 Fixture List at this early stage so as to facilitate racecourses in their promotional plans for next year. We have been able to retain the same overall number of fixtures for 2015 despite a small decline in the number of horses in training this year. It is worth noting that in 2013, the average field size in Ireland was 11.62, compared to 10.92 in France and 8.95 in Britain, which shows the continued emphasis that we place on producing competitive racing.
“For 2015, we have ensured that there will be a top-quality Sunday National Hunt card throughout the core winter months, which includes scheduling two Leopardstown meetings on successive Sundays in January. There will also be a high-class Flat meeting staged every weekend of the summer season. The calendar has been kind in the way that the Easter Festival at Fairyhouse falls three weeks before the Punchestown Festival, with the early season Flat programme also being ideally scheduled.
“Looking ahead to 2016, Ireland has asked the European Pattern Race Committee to undertake a thorough review of the entire European middle distance three-year-old programme to determine whether beneficial changes can be effected for the future.”
