HRI Boss Praises Owners' Patience

Horse Racing Ireland chief executive Brian Kavanagh has commended owners for their resilience and reiterated they will be the first group welcomed back to the racecourse as soon as coronavirus restrictions are relaxed.

Ireland has been in Level 5 lockdown since October and owners have been absent from the racecourse for the best part of a year, although they did return for a brief period last autumn.

There is hope there will be some easing of restrictions by the government this week but, unlike in Britain where owners will be welcomed back to courses March 29, there does not appear to be the same prospects of a return in Ireland with race meetings taking place behind closed doors and with a skeletal staff in attendance.

Kavanagh said: "The owners will be the first to come back, but that will depend more generally on the vaccination program and virus situation in Ireland. You'd have to hope that things will be better in April and May when the vaccines will have begun to take a hold.

"Our ownership number for the first two months of the year is up strongly compared to last year. There is still a huge appeal about owning horses in Ireland and I think racecourses have done their best to compensate for the fact that owners can't turn up which has been excellent to see."

Kavanagh added: "The hope would be that, towards the latter part of the year, our ability to get some people back on track will have improved.

"We need to get people back as soon as it is safe to do so, just to reintroduce the culture of going racing again. I have been to the races once in the past year. People get used to watching racing from home and we need to get people back on track as soon as possible because of that."