Caldwell welcomes 'badly needed' changes made to the summer Flat programme
Bernard Caldwell of the Irish Stable Staff Association has welcomed the changes made by Horse Racing Ireland to the racing calendar this summer in a bid to combat a lack of downtime for stable staff in Flat yards.
This Sunday is the second time this month where no Flat racing has been scheduled and Caldwell said:
“A lot of people on Twitter felt that these free Sundays were an error or a slip up on HRI’s behalf, but in fact they are badly needed days of rest for hard-working stable staff and we'd like to point that out.
"It's working well, and all credit to HRI because they listened to us when we went to them. It’s appreciated by stable staff.”
“We have a blank day from racing on this Sunday before Galway, as has been the case for most years.
“However, we also moved a Naas fixture, held on a Sunday last year, to be scheduled on Saturday, July 8 this year, and also made other changes so that the two All-Ireland final days were blank."
Further ahead, there is no racing in Ireland on Sunday, September 3 or Sunday, September 17.
Click here for more news on changes to the fixture list:
Start of Flat turf season in need of relaunch say industry figures
PJA calls for Flat jockeys' break over fear of burnout
Published on 28 July 2017inNews
Last updated 16:50, 28 July 2017
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