48-hour declarations are here to stay The Board of Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) has agreed to make 48-hour declarations, which were brought in last summer to help deal with Covid, a permanent feature of Irish racing. Jason Morris, Director of Racing at HRI, said “The HRI Board accepted that there were many positive reasons for retaining 48-day declarations on a permanent basis. Significant commercial, marketing and operational benefits have been identified including the promotion of our sport by media and the betting industry. “48-hour declarations are considered essential by our media rights partners when it comes to maximising our income streams from international markets, thereby driving revenues for racecourses as well as increasing the exposure of our horses for export purposes. "Their permanent retention had support from associations representing Racecourses, Owners and Stable Staff, all of whom identified the positive benefits of being able to plan further ahead. "The Jockeys Association and IHRB Senior Medical Officer are also strongly supportive from a health and welfare perspective as it gives more notice to jockeys of their required riding weights and doubles the time available for them to manage any required weight loss. “While there has been an anticipated increase in non-runners, the overall effect has not been significant as our reserve system allows for replacements — the net percentage of non-runners has only increased by 0.10 runners per race from 2019 to 2021 against the background of average field sizes increasing overall from 11.5 to 12.3 runners per race over this period. “We acknowledge the concerns of the Trainers and Owners Associations around the timetable for making entries and we will explore with the IRTA and AIRO whether beneficial changes can be made to the current entry schedule.”
