Shane Doyle

Like many in racing, I am from a farming background. With my father running a butchering business until retiring from that a couple of years ago along with the farm, he had little time to be interested in racing but some members of the family were: his father owning Silver Patch, the horse Frank Oakes referred to winning what would now be the Champion Bumper at Punchestown in his famous Thurles interview with Matt Chapman last November, and his uncle owning Gold Cup winner Glencaraig Lady, in whose colours a family syndicate owned a little horse called Glen Money, who won numerous bumpers and hurdles also for Francis Flood.

Having been bitten by the bug and being fascinated by the breeding side of the game, I persuaded my parents to give it ago. We consulted with family friend Paddy Burns of Lodge Park Stud. The first foal produced turning out to be Lauries Warrior, who landed the Group 3 Diomed Stakes the same day Reference Point won his Derby at Epsom, having originally being an intended runner in the big race itself.

Slowly building up the numbers of mares, the family bred numerous good winners over the years including stakes horses Cortachy Castle, Daunting Lady, Irony, Parliament Square, as well as current useful three-year-old sprinter Happy Odyssey, who won a listed race last season for David Redvers and Amy Murphy. Meanwhile, I was was lucky enough to breed Masta Plasta, who won the Norfolk Stakes for Graham Wylie and Howard Johnson.

Having somehow completed a Commerce degree in UCD despite attending every race meeting possible, I was still anxious to get involved in racing and got a job working with Michael Clower at the Irish office of the Sporting Life, returning SPs from Irish meetings as well as doing previews and reports and some feature articles. When the Sporting Life folded in Ireland, I worked for a short while at Phonovation, doing the previews and wrap-ups on Irish racing for their commentary lines before the Turf Club advertised some jobs due the starting of the overnight declarations of riders.

A few years later, when HRI took over the registry office functions, there was a vacancy for an assistant to Josh Byrne. The whole area of race planning was very appealing so I moved over from declarations, eventually taking over as Race Planning Manager when Josh returned to the Turf Club to take the role as INHS Registrar, from which he has only recently retired.

The two main areas for the race planning function are the fixture list and the race programme itself.

The fixture list process begins each May when the HRI board set the fixtures policy for the following year relating to the number of fixtures, number of Saturday evenings or any other matters the fixture committee might need to consider in its deliberations before recommending a fixture list for the board’s approval in September.

The process takes place over a number of drafts on which the racecourses will be consulted for any requests for changes to their allotted fixtures or to apply for any additional fixtures that may be available, whether on a one-year or permanent basis.

The race programme is broken into three sections for both Flat and National Hunt racing, the former from the start of the turf to Irish Derby weekend, the remainder of the turf, and a Dundalk Winter programme, and the latter from January to Punchestown, a summer programme, and from October to Christmas.

The process begins with HRI producing a draft programme for the period based on the fixture list, which is considered by a working group, an advisory committee consisting of industry stakeholders such as owners, trainers, breeders, jockeys and racecourse representatives as well as the IHRB handicappers and a member of the HRI betting committee.

After what is often a lengthy debate, a programme is put forward for the programmes committee, which is made up of HRI board members, to ratify. They will also consider any policy issues relating to the programme that might arise. Hopefully at the end of all that, we have a programme that produces competitive racing that gives a reasonable chance for all to run.

There is a great variety in the day-to-day of the job and much consultation with many of the bodies within the industry, as it is good to see many of the issues from each other’s side!

A good example is the meetings we have each year as part of the fixtures process with the Irish Stable Staff Association to discuss their issues, which have hopefully cleared up some concerns that they may have had previously and have led to many positive changes in recent fixture lists.

The IHRB clerks of courses also play their part in the fixtures process to ensure the courses can best manage the fixtures they are given, with some courses changing the codes of meetings during the summer this year due to the pressure the extra watering for summer jumping over that required for flat racing puts on courses that race through the winter also.

It was also from regular meetings with the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Associaton that the Fillies Bonus Scheme was fine-tuned. It was discussions with the Irish Racehorse Trainers’ Association about how to reinvigorate the declining runners in two-year-old auction races a number of years ago that the idea of having a series with a final came, which has gone from strength to strength thanks to the support of the Irish EBF and latterly Forans, who came on board in the third year and took the whole series to a new level.

A series of auction maidens over hurdles was trialled on a small scale with Tattersalls Ireland sponsoring in winter 2017 before being expanded greatly this season with Irish EBF and Connollys Red Mills sponsorship to similar success as the flat. That Grade 1 winners at Cheltenham and Aintree, City Island and Felix Desjy competed in the series and that there is a competitive looking final at Punchestown next week, which highlights the quality of animal that can be purchased at a reasonable price at the NH Store sales.

While there has been a significant rise in entries for National Hunt racing since the New Year and for Flat racing since the return of the turf, which has caused some frustration as the number of turf fixtures for this year cannot be increased, there is a strong possibility we will meet the criteria required for some additional turf fixtures in 2020, which will hopefully result in additional opportunities for both codes.

The proposed addition of a second all-weather course, for which expressions of interest close shortly, will be an exciting project for the fixtures/programmes committee to be involved in over the coming months and will hopefully be a great boon to Irish flat racing when it comes on board.

At the end of the day, I am still just an enthusiastic part-time breeder and racegoer who enjoys trying to do his best for Irish racing for a day job. Even if we cannot please all the people all of the time, we will try to explain why we have gone the way we have and see if it can be done better.