Horse Racing Ireland tweak next year's fixture schedule with Ryder Cup at Adare Manor
Love Me Tender and Harry Cobden win the Thorn Plant Hire Beginners Steeplechase at Listowel on Thursday. Picture: Healy Racing.
Next year’s Listowel Harvest Festival will start and finish a day later than usual due to the Ryder Cup being staged at Adare Manor.
The seven-day marathon normally starts on a Sunday and ends the following Saturday but next year the meeting will start on Monday, September 20 and finish the following Sunday, on September 26, the HRI said on Thursday as they published a fixtures plan for 2027.
Ireland will stage 396 race meetings next year, an increase of six on the total number scheduled this year.
The list is notable for the presence of Tipperary’s new all-weather track from October 23. Nine fixtures are scheduled to take place to the end of 2027 at the redeveloped venue.
HRI director of racing Jonathan Mullin said: “The redevelopment of Tipperary racecourse to include a new all-weather track, and its opening fixture on October 23 next year, will mark a significant moment for Irish racing.
“With nine fixtures in total at Tipperary next year, it signals a strategic investment in all-weather racing from Horse Racing Ireland, and the creation of increased opportunity for racing’s stakeholders.”
However, the long-term future of Thurles remains in doubt, with the arrangement between the Molony family and HRI set to expire in March.
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The fact the six Thurles fixtures scheduled for October onwards next year have an asterisk 'to be confirmed' in the calendar raises question marks as to whether meetings will continue to go ahead at the Tipperary venue.
