HRI Give Go-ahead for Four Extra Saturday Evening Fixtures At its meeting on Monday 8th March, the Board of Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) confirmed that the four fixtures scheduled for Kilbeggan (8th May), Limerick & Wexford (29th May) and Cork (12th June) will all proceed as Saturday evening fixtures for 2004. At the time the original Fixture List was published, these meetings were marked with an asterisk and their status was to be confirmed. There will therefore be eight Saturday evening fixtures this year, with two meetings to be staged on both July 3rd (Leopardstown & Limerick) and July 24th (Leopardstown & Wexford) as per last year. In reaching this decision, the Board of HRI noted the support in principle of all relevant organisations for Saturday evening meetings. The Board welcomed the fact that the Irish Racehorse Trainers´ Association and the Irish Stablestaff Association have now entered negotiations in relation to appropriate terms and conditions of employment for stablestaff (including payments for Saturday evenings). Mr Frank Timmins, Human Resources Manager for HRI is acting as a facilitator to these discussions which have already commenced.
