The Curragh will get the Flat season under way next year on March 20

  PICTURE:Patrick McCann/racingpostpix.com  

Ireland loses meetings, but gains racing days

THERE will be ten fewer race meetings in Ireland in 2011, but three more days of racing, according to the fixture list which was released on Monday.

With the number of fixtures cut from 345 to 335, next year's racing schedule in Ireland will be the quietest since 2007 when only 335 cards were booked.

The Flat season reverts to its traditional starting point of the Curragh's opening meeting on March 20, but has been extended a further week to Dundalk's seasonal finale on December 16.

As revealed last month, the curtain-closer of the jumps season, the Punchestown festival, will run from May 3-7.

The later date of that fixture is to avoid a clash with Fairyhouse's Ladbrokes Irish Grand National meeting, which traditionally centres around Easter Monday and falls from April 24-26 in 2011.

Killarney's three summer festivals will run from May 15-17, July 11-14 and August 23-26, while Galway's summer meeting goes from July 25-31.

Brian Kavanagh, chief executive of  Horse Racing Ireland, said: "HRI has adopted a prudent course of action in agreeing the 2011 fixture list, faced with a 13 per cent drop in the number of horses in training and the need to maintain the vitality of the racecourse sector.

"Irish racecourses have fought successfully to attract and hold racegoers in a declining leisure market and, so far this year, have kept attendance levels ahead of the same period last year.

"All sectors of the industry have endured severe cuts in recent years and the loss of traditional horse-related employment in rural areas is of particular concern.

"For these reasons the reduction in fixtures has been kept at a modest level, reflecting our confidence that the Government's close engagement on the issue and the broad acceptance of the need for change among bookmakers has opened up a real prospect that a secure future funding basis will be achieved which will allow the industry to return to growth".

The British fixture list should be published later this month, having been delayed.