Horse Racing Ireland today announced a number of changes to the Irish National Hunt Pattern race programme for the 2006/7 season, with the promotion of Punchestown's Morgiana Hurdle and the Ellier Chase from Grade 2 to Grade 1 status heading a number of significant upgrades

A summary of all the principal changes, including downgrades and changes to race distances, is provided below:

Upgrade from Grade 2 to 1

Introduced at Group 3

Upgrade from Grade C to Grade B

Upgrade from Listed to Grade C

Downgrade from Grade 1 to Grade 2

*The race conditions, as a straight Weight-For-Age hurdle without penalties, and the prize money (at 100,000) will remain unchanged.

Change in Distances

Additionally, three new Listed races have been added, while two existing races have seen their Listed status removed due to the poor historical ratings achieved:

New Listed Races

Listed Status removed

HRI's Director of Racing Jason Morris commented:

'Horse Racing Ireland's National Hunt Pattern Committee reviews the entire Black Type programme on an annual basis to ensure that all Irish Pattern and Listed races are maintaining the appropriate quality. The continuing improvement in the Irish National Hunt horse population, as reflected by our unprecedented overseas successes during the past two seasons, has allowed HRI to further enhance the Pattern race programme, with two consistently high quality races justifying their promotion to Grade 1 status at Punchestown, a new Grade 3 race for Down Royal and a significant number of Handicaps promoted into the Pattern at the Grade C level from Listed status.

Whilst the downgrading of the Tipperary Hurdle is unfortunate but unavoidable due to its failure to meet the required rating parameters, the race's conditions and prize money will be unchanged. It will therefore remain an important early season target for the leading hurdlers as part of Tipperary's Super Sunday card which features six Black Type races, three under each code'.