New Capital Development Scheme to enhance track safety HRI has today launched a new €1 million Equine Care Racecourse Capital Development Scheme to target the further enhancement of racecourse safety measures. This new racecourse-focused Scheme reflects the key goal in the new HRI Strategic Plan 2024-2028 to ‘Cultivate a Culture of Zero Compromise in Equine Care and Safety Standards’. Following extensive discussions with the IHRB, two initial areas are being targeted within the new Scheme: 1. By the end of 2025, identification markers on all hurdles and fences at the 23 racecourses staging jump racing will be converted from orange to white in line with best international practice, and there will be a linked move away from the traditional birch hurdles to non-birch hurdles. There is a strong scientific basis for moving to white identification markers on obstacles based on their visibility to racehorses and the two other main National Hunt racing jurisdictions (Britain and France) exclusively use obstacles with white markings. The second part of the change in obstacles is to discontinue the use of birch hurdles from an injury reduction perspective. Approximately half of Irish racecourses currently use birch hurdles and the plan would be to replace these with non-birch hurdles for the 2025/26 season. 2. The introduction of appropriately sized trot-up areas to facilitate veterinary inspections, including a rubberised surface for consistency, at all racecourses by the start of their 2025 racing seasons. Trot-up areas are deemed an essential tool for the IHRB veterinary team in checking horses pre-race with a view to identifying any horses which are not deemed suitable to compete. A consistent trot-up area at all racecourses is needed to allow for comparable checks to be undertaken irrespective of the venue. The requirement for trot-up areas is included in the HRI/IHRB Racecourse Manual and further clarity will now be provided to racecourses over the specific size, turning points and surface requirements to ensure that all are as uniform as possible, whilst recognising that space limitations in some stable yards will need to be factored into account. 50% grants will be offered towards the costs of replacing hurdles and, where necessary, converting them from birch. It has been agreed, following discussions with the Association of Irish Racecourses, that procurement will be managed centrally through HRI. The first step in the procurement process will be to issue a technical dialogue to assist with determining the framework agreement under which the obstacles would be tendered. It is recognised that more than one solution will be required as some racecourses for operational reasons require a more fixed type of hurdle while others will use the sectional padded variety. For the trot-up areas, 40% grants will be supplied to racecourses in line with the grants which some racecourses have already received for works in this area under either the previous stable yard expansion scheme or the racecourse improvements scheme. The next phase of the Equine Care Racecourse Capital Development Scheme will be to target the supply of water, both in terms of adding or expanding reservoirs at racecourses, and also to ensure that every track has the most effective watering system. Much progress has already been made at racecourses in this area, and the aim will remain to ensure that all tracks have adequate access, capacity and capability to continue to provide safe racing ground in the future. Launching the new Equine Care Racecourse Capital Development Scheme, John Osborne, HRI Equine Welfare and Bloodstock Director, said: “HRI’s new Strategic Plan 2024-2028 has set human and equine care and safety as our highest priority. This investment targets race safety in the most specific way, producing an immediate improvement for our horses.”
