Down Royal hopeful for Bank Holiday card

Down Royal manager Michael Todd was today optimistic that racing would resume in the North next month, although the Department of Agriculture in the province has yet to give their all-clear.

Minister for Agriculture, Joe Walsh, gave Irish racing the go-ahead last Wednesday for a return to action on Easter Monday but the authorities in the North have yet to follow suit.

Down Royal are set to stage a meeting on May 7th and Todd and his team at the Lisburn track are planning for the Bank Holiday meeting on the assumption that they will get the okay soon.

'We are waiting on official approval. We have met the Department of Agriculture a few times and they seemed impressed by the guidelines drawn up for the staging of racing.' said Todd.

The absence of point-to-point racing has been a harsh blow to the Northern racing community which is predominantly concerned with National Hunt horses and Todd revealed that their card is set to cater for horses who missed out on action betweenthe flags.

'We have a hunter chase, a point-to-point hurdle and a bumper on the card. My understanding is that the hurdle will be open to horses which held a hunter cert before the halting of racing.'

A Department of Agriculture spokesman today confirmed that under present animal movement restrictions the meeting could not go-ahead but added that the situation was being reviewed on a daily basis by their vets.

The ban on the movement of horses in the province was eased on March 30th with owners allowed to move animals between premises in a 10km radius under general licence.

Owners can also apply for a specific licence for movement outside these perimiters but transport to events and shows is prohibited, thus ruling out racing.