HRI announce new Premier Handicap series

Horse Racing Ireland today annonced the creation of a series of twelve Flat Premier Handicaps each with a total prize money value of at least €100,000.

The series starts with the Lincolnshire at the Curragh on 24th March & concludes with the November Handicap at Leopardstown on 3rd November.

The races cover the complete spectrum of race distances, from the 5 furlongs of the Rockingham to the 2 miles of the Cesarewitch

Also, there will be fourteen Premier Handicaps with a minimum value of at least €50,000, including a new 6f Premier Handicap for 3yo's only in mid-May.

HRI also today announced that the minimum values of Irish Black Type races will be increased for 2013, by €10,000 for Group 1 races from €190,000 to €200,000, by €5,000 for Group 2 races from €95,000 to €100,000 & by €2,500 for Group 3 & Listed races to €60,000 & €40,000.

Announcing these new initiatives, HRI director of racing Jason Morris commented: “HRI is keen to establish more high profile flat races throughout the season and is therefore placing greater emphasis upon some of the high profile premier handicaps, both for promotional reasons and to generate more interest in flat racing outside the Group 1 days.

"The intention would be for these races, where possible, to be the feature event on their respective days and therefore the principal race being promoted to the public.

"High value handicaps are a very prominent feature within the National Hunt racing calendar and the aim is to develop a similar series of highlights on the flat.

"These high value premier handicaps will offer the opportunity for a sizeable pool of horses to win significant prize money across a wide variety of distances and throughout the entire season, which will in turn hopefully serve as an incentive to stimulate the ownership of flat horses in Ireland.

"We are very grateful to all the sponsors associated with these races and in particular the Irish Stallion Farms European Breeders Fund for providing financial support towards ten of these premier handicaps.

"HRI has also acted to increase prize money in our blacktype races, cognisant of the fact that our values currently lag behind our principal European counterparts. It is vital that Ireland continues to offer competitive prize money to attract high quality international participation in our most prestigious Flat races."