HRI crack the whip to liven up horse racing
Many of the moves will come into place for next year’s flat season in order to improve the overall quality of racing on offer and it is proposed that similar action will be applied in the National Hunt sphere in the future.
According to the HRI’s director of racing, Jason Morris, the industry’s strategic plan contains a commitment to improving the quality of the racing product.
“The measures which we introduced for National Hunt racing last year have been successful in improving the balloting situation. The Board anticipates that the new measures will increase the competitiveness of flat racing and improve the racing experience for the race going public.”
For flat racing, the immediate intention is to significantly reduce the number of horses at the bottom of the flat rating scale, to address the problem of excessive eliminations in low-grade Flat Handicaps. There are also plans to improve the competitiveness, quality and appeal of these events by introducing a further merit-based element in the balloting system. These “quality control measures” agreed by HRI mean that any horse with a Flat rating of 35 or less at the end of the 2004 season will no longer be qualified to run in Flat races in Ireland. For 2005, the minimum Flat ratings off which horses will be allowed to run will increase to 45 for 2 year olds, from 40); 40 for 3 year olds, from 37 and 36 for 4 year olds and upwards, from 33.
According to the HRI, any horse rated 36 which runs unplaced on three consecutive outings next year will become ineligible to run in Flat races in Ireland. Further increases in the minimum ratings will be introduced as required for the 2006 season.
HRI has also announced the 2005 fixture list which shows the total number of fixtures rising from 305 to 313. The racecourses gaining fixtures in 2005 are Ballinrobe, Bellewstown - plus two with a new two-day meeting in August - the Curragh, Fairyhouse, Gowran Park, Killarney, Naas, Sligo, Tipperary and Wexford.
The two racecourses losing fixtures at their request for track maintenance reasons are Down Royal, two fixtures, and Punchestown, one fixture.
The HRI said adjustments would have to be made to some prize money minimum levels to fund the extra meetings.
“The HRI Board prioritised two main areas of the 2005 Fixture List for making improvements in terms of horse population requirements. The first objective was to provide an additional allocation of Flat races during the initial part of the season, up to the end of May, which has historically suffered from a stuttering start. While the 2005 Flat programme will not be completed for several months, it is anticipated that some 30 extra Flat races will be available during this period due to a re-distribution of fixtures and the addition of several new Flat meetings, including two in April at Gowran Park and Naas.”
HRI said its second objective was to build on the improvements to the winter jumping programme by enhancing the pre-Christmas period for National Hunt horses. This has been achieved by the addition of three extra fixtures in the key months of November and December.
