No time for tea at Navan today Today’s fixture at Navan can be added to conversations surrounding gaps between race-times at Flat meetings, as IHRB officials caught-up a 53-minute delay over the course of just six races. Four hours-and-three minutes had been allotted for the completion of Navan’s eight races and while the opener was delayed awaiting the arrival of medical personnel, the opening six contests were later completed in only two hours and five minutes. Stretching to 35-minute gaps between races are necessary for television channels to juggle multiple race meetings but, with revised intervals of 24 minutes, 24, 28, 27 and 22 today, critics could reasonably argue for a pare back, on occasion, to 25 minutes. Champion jumps trainer Willie Mullins is a notable critic of yawning gaps, having said “you can only go for so many cups of tea” between races.
