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.”

Explaining the decision, Shane Doyle of HRI said: “Last year members of the ISSA Committee met with the HRI executive to discuss a number of issues, one of which was the lack of Sundays off during the summer period for their members working in Flat yards, whereas their members in National Hunt yards have Sundays free when there's only Flat racing during that time.

Hidden Cyclone: the popular veteran will be on show at the popular Galway festival next weekCredit: Patrick McCann

“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