Free-to-air Irish language channel TG4 set for first Cork broadcast on Friday as it plans to visit every racecourse in Ireland

The free-to-air Irish language channel TG4 has stated its ambition to complete the full house of live racing from every track in the country as it prepares an inaugural broadcast from Cork on Friday.

TG4 will begin broadcasting at 5.15pm and the five live races will include the feature, the €60,000 Group 3 Munster Oaks. There will be delayed coverage, to allow for the news bulletin, of the other two races.

The visit to the Rebel County will bring the number of Irish racecourses visited by the state-owned channel to 22 out of 26 and it does not plan on stopping there.

"We'll be live from Mallow on Friday and that will leave just four more courses on the island for us to visit, which we hope to get to by the end of next year,” said producer Cathal O’Hare.

“We're hoping to cover the Clonmel Oil Chase this year, which would then just leave us with Wexford, Thurles and Downpatrick to visit.

“In a year we normally show 16 meetings, and in 2023 we covered our first Group 1, the Phoenix Stakes, and our first Grade 1 over jumps came last year when we broadcast the Morgiana Hurdle.”

Brighterdaysahead won the Morgiana Hurdle shown on TG4Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

The channel has covered the Listowel harvest festival for more than 20 years but the Covid pandemic provided the impetus for more racing output in Gaeilge.

“Listowel used to be the only meeting we did, but during the pandemic racing was the only sport on and it was very well regulated, so TG4 started covering more horseracing and filling the schedule with trips around the country. We got a lot of very positive feedback and we kept going with it,” O’Hare said.

Presenter Daragh O’Conchuir is encouraged by the reaction the TG4 team are receiving and feels the sport appeals to a wider audience.

He said: “We get a great reaction from inside and outside the industry. We go to some of the smaller tracks that would never get on RTE, which is a nice thing too.

“We're hitting a different audience. People might have it on in the background who might not be a typical Racing TV audience, so it's a good opportunity to get more eyes on the sport.

“This sport is part of Ireland’s beating heart, so it's a great combination with the Irish language and if people pick up some Irish words by watching it then that's fantastic as well.”

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