HRI

Following a request from Roscommon Racecourse, Horse Racing Ireland have transferred the Roscommon meeting originally scheduled for Tuesday, July 5 (evening meeting) to Monday, July 4 (evening meeting). The meeting will now close for entries by 12 noon Wednesday, June 29 with declarations to run to be made by 10am Saturday, July 2. Race programme details will be forthcoming.

The IRE Incentive scheme, an initiative designed to stimulate and fortify Irish Thoroughbred breeding, racing and sales, will expand to include over 200 races in Ireland and Britain in 2022, according to Horse Racing Ireland (HRI). The IRE Incentive scheme awards a bonus of €10,000 to owners of Irish-bred winners of selected races across the Irish and British Flat and National Hunt programmes, to be spent on Irish-breds at Irish sales. In its first year, the IRE Incentive scheme awarded over €1,000,000 to over 90 individual owners, contributing to more...

Roger Casey, a chartered accountant who has been with Tattersalls Ireland for 14 years, will join Horse Racing Ireland as Group Chief Financial Officer, succeeding Suzanne Eade, who has moved into the role of chief executive officer. Casey is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland, a member of the Institute of Directors in Ireland, and brings international commercial experience to the role having worked with Marsh McClennan; KPMG in Toronto and Dublin; and Deloitte in Dublin. Eade said, "I look forward to working with Roger, who brings significant financial expertise...

All Pattern and listed races staged in Europe in 2021 were reviewed by the European Pattern Committee (EPC) at their annual meeting, which was held virtually on Friday, Jan. 21. The EPC sanctioned 851 black-type races (854 in 2021) to be held in Europe in 2022, of which, 425 were group races (427 in 2021) and 426 listed races (427 in 2021), a reduction of three on 2021. Besides upgrading and downgraded races, the EPC also appointed Jason Morris, the Director of Racing at Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) to replace...

A survey, focusing on the range of challenges around health, safety and sustainability that employers and key stakeholders face in the racing industry, was launched by Horse Racing Ireland (HRI)'s health and safety division along with the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association (IRTA) and the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders' Association (ITBA). The bespoke online survey, conducted by Red C Research & Marketing, will be anonymous and take 10 minutes to complete. A link to complete the survey will be sent to all industry employers and is also available through equuip's website and...

A total of 40 nominations have been revealed for the 2021 Horse Racing Ireland Awards, which will be presented in December. Spread across seven categories, the nominees are as follows: Horse of the Year Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}) Minella Indo (Ire) (Beat Hollow {GB}) Chacun Pour Soi (Fr) (Policy Make {Ire}) Flooring Porter (Ire) (Yeats {Ire}) St Mark's Basilica (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}) Snowfall (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) National Hunt Award Henry de Bromhead Willie Mullins Paul Townend Darragh O'Keeffe  National Hunt Achievement Award Dermot...

Jockey Rachael Blackmore will be awarded the 2021 Irish Racing Hero Award at the annual Horse Racing Ireland Awards in December. Blackmore became the first woman to claim the Cheltenham Festival Leading Jockey title with six winners. She found Champion Hurdle success with Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}) on Tuesday, a Triumph Hurdle score with Quilixios (GB) (Maxios {GB}) on Friday and also won races in the middle of the meeting with Bob Olinger (Ire) (Sholokhov {Ire}) and Sir Gerhard (Ire) (Jeremy) on Wednesday and Allaho (Fr) (No Risk At All...

A streamlining of the claiming process for Irish claiming races, to speed up post-race procedures, has been instituted by Horse Racing Ireland and the new regulations will go into effect on Nov. 2. Pre-authorisation on the day of the race will be required for all potential claimants. The claimant's contact details, the name of the designated trainer for the horse they wish to claim, the name of the person responsible for collecting and transporting the claimed horse and the value of the horse they wish to claim should be submitted...

The closing date for the Weatherbys ITBA National Hunt Fillies Bonus Scheme is Sept. 30. Through the support of HRI and Weatherbys, the initiative, now in its eighth year, has passed the €2-million mark in bonuses paid out to winning owners. A €5,000 bonus is attached to every mares-only maiden race in Ireland: bumpers, maiden hurdles and beginners' chases. In 2018, the scheme was extended to include a number of mares only handicap hurdles for fillies that did not win their maiden in addition to supporting the Connolly's Red Mills...

A total of 390 fixtures will be run in Ireland in 2022, with the fixture list published on Tuesday. There are 387 fixtures on the list at this stage with three 'floating fixtures' to be kept in reserve to be programmed at short notice by the Horse Racing Ireland Fixtures Committee. There will be 346 turf fixtures (up from 339 in 2021) and 44 all-weather fixtures (up from 41 this year). Six Sundays have been kept blank-Apr. 24, June 19, July 24, Aug. 28, Sept. 4 and Oct. 9, and...

Longines Irish Champion S. Day will be a World Pool event for the first time, Horse Racing Ireland announced. Sept. 11 marks the collaboration between the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Tote, Horse Racing Ireland and the Racecourse Media Group at Leopardstown where racing fans from around the world will have the opportunity to bet into a single pool, ensuring larger and deeper pools, differentiated pricing, and the opportunity for unequalled value for Tote customers. Created and hosted by the Hong Kong Jockey Club since 2018, over 20 leading racing nations,...

Irish racecourses can host up to 50% of their outdoor capacity beginning on Sept. 6 following the Irish Government's latest COVID-19 response roadmap, Horse Racing Ireland announced on Thursday. Racecourses may also utilise 60% of their indoor capacity for hospitality purposes should attendees consume food and beverages indoors as long as they provide evidence of their Digital Covid Vaccine Cert (DCC). Attendance in both spheres will be increased to 100% as long as all covid restrictions are lifted on Oct. 22. Regarding Irish Champions Weekend on Sept. 11 and 12,...