Dundalk Adds Four Fixtures

Four additional Dundalk fixtures have been added for early 2021 to cope with the recent high number of entries at the track and the significant number of horses that have been balloted out of races at Dundalk's last three meetings.

The additional meetings will take place on Jan. 11 (afternoon), Jan. 20 (evening), Feb. 1 (afternoon) and Feb. 17 (afternoon).

Jason Morris, HRI director of racing, said, “We have had representations from the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association, the Restricted Trainers Association and the Association of Irish Racehorse Owners, all of whom have expressed serious concern. We are therefore pleased to be able to provide these additional opportunities during January and February to augment the existing programme. We envisage scheduling four or five races at each of these new meetings to allow for potential divides of multiple races to create eight-race cards at the additional fixtures. This approach has worked well in the past.

“We are grateful to Dundalk Racecourse for agreeing to contribute towards the funding of these meetings, as is the case with any additional fixtures allocated to racecourses. The dates and times for these meetings have been reviewed with SIS to identify the most beneficial slots from a betting turnover perspective and we are grateful to them for supporting the scheduling of these additional meetings. We have also liaised closely with Racing TV to ensure that we are maximising broadcast coverage for these new fixtures.”