Irish racing hoping for timeline on trial return of crowds on Friday

A government announcement this Friday on the next phase of Ireland's national reopening could shed light on the timeline for spectators to attend racecourse trial events, with Horse Racing Ireland chief executive Brian Kavanagh stressing that Irish racing is eager to be involved.

A report from Ireland's national broadcaster RTE suggested that the public could return to sporting events by the end of June, with the possibility for small crowds at fixtures, including at All Ireland gaelic games, League of Ireland football fixtures, rugby and other sports including athletics and golf.

There was no specific reference to horseracing in the report, but Kavanagh does not believe that should be taken as a concern and is focused on the government's announcement later this week.

"We've submitted proposals and expressed a strong interest to be involved in trials to the department of agriculture," he said.

"Hopefully, there seems to be some positive indications that things are starting to move; we would hope to be a part of that. We would make the point that racecourses are probably the widest open spaces of any sporting venue that you'll come across."

Brian Kavanagh: 'We've built up a lot of experience with the meetings we've run, we know the key issues and vulnerabilities'Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

The trial events will start small with a capacity of just five per cent of stadiums, according to the RTE report, although the outdoor nature of race meetings could potentially enhance the case for greater crowds.

If these pilots are successful, events would reportedly scale up gradually and could see a return to 30 per cent capacity in large stadiums later in the summer.

Kavanagh, who would not speculate on whether Friday's announcement would yield news concerning the return of owners to Irish tracks, said: "I think the first thing is that these would be entirely outdoor events. The capacity of racecourses includes internal as well as external, so we'd look and work that through."

He added: "It's a question of a trial in advance of a more general sort of opening for mass gatherings, to find out what the issues that are there.

"We've built up a lot of experience with the meetings we've run, we know the key issues and vulnerabilities. We've had over 400 fixtures run and there hasn't been really a single Covid event arising from them, so we're proud of that."

Courses in England can currently accommodate up to 4,000 people or 50 per cent of capacity, whichever is smaller.

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