The Curragh's season will be shortened to mid-May through mid-September in 2017 to facilitate the racecourse's redevelopment. The Curragh will stage its typical 18 summer meetings, with some key early- and late-season races set to be staged at other venues, including Naas and Navan.
These changes were revealed on Tuesday with HRI's release of the 2017 fixture list, which is expected to see flat races increase by 16 (to 1102 races) and National Hunt races decline by 15 (to 1412 races). These changes reflect the improvement of flat average field sizes thus far in 2016 (up to 10.5 from 9.8) and the small decline in National Hunt average field sizes (11.2, down from 11.3).
The other major change to the calendar is the reintroduction of two dark Sundays in September–Sept. 3 and 17–when All-Ireland Hurling and Football Finals are taking place. There will also be no flat racing Sunday July 9. Additionally, Longines Irish Champions Weekend will take place Sept. 9 and 10 next year.
“The biggest change to the Fixture List for 2017 is the shortened Curragh season, which will now see 18 meetings staged in 18 weeks,” said HRI Chief Executive Brian Kavanagh. “It will be a very busy period but will prove worthwhile as, subject to The Curragh's application for funding passing through the rigorous HRI capital evaluation process, it will allow redevelopment to get underway on the new state-of-the-art facilities at the home of Irish flat racing.
“I would like to commend Naas and Navan Racecourses for their co-operation and support when it came to moving dates next year so that we can continue to provide a coherent early- and late-season programme of flat opportunities,” Kavanagh added. “The significant additional available racing surface, remedial work to their sprint track and ability to accommodate virtually all distances with high safety limits, made Naas the obvious candidate to accommodate the majority of the Curragh's transferred fixtures.”
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