History made with first Barrier Trials The first Barrier Trials in Ireland were conducted before racing at Dundalk today. They were carried out by Irish Thoroughbred Marketing (ITM) in conjunction with Horse Racing Ireland and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board. Barrier Trials are mock races with unraced horses starting from stalls. Two trials were held, each with six runners, over five furlongs. Jeremy Greene from ITM said: "Firstly we would like to say thanks to the connections and staff who took part and for giving their time. Thanks also to everyone at Dundalk Stadium, HRI and the IHRB and to the stalls team, doctors and everyone behind the scenes for helping us facilitate this initiative. "We are happy just to get a start with the trials. We just hope that when the dust settles that connections will see merit in them and that others might wish to put their horses through them. "Our brief at ITM is to find more markets for Irish horses and we are missing out on substantial trade with unraced horses so we would like to create a platform for that to improve. "We understand they might take time to bed in and there is a learning curve associated, but we hope we can run them again soon in the near future. Demand from owners and trainers will decide that for us.” Restricted to unraced 2yo and 3yo horses, those participating must have a starting stalls certificate, be in the care of a fully licensed trainer and be ridden by licensed jockeys under catchweights, ie. without assigned weights, as is the practice overseas. The cost is €100, payable to Dundalk Racecourse, as is the case for schooling races. The trials are recorded, timed and available to view on ITM’s website and social media channels. The results of the Barrier Trials can be viewed at http://itm.ie/en/Barrier_Trials/Entries_Results/
