HRI announcement brings end to Irish Hunter Chase season

There will be no further Hunter Chases this season, after the Board of Horse Racing Ireland announced that the Irish National Hunt Season was to be prematurely brought to an end in the midst of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The decision which has brought about the cancellation of the big spring Festivals at Fairyhouse and Punchestown, will mean that all the remaining Hunter Chases, which had been programmed for the spring term, have been cancelled.

This includes the Joseph O’Reilly Memorial Hunter Chase at Fairyhouse, the Jack Tyner Memorial Hunter Chase at Cork, both over the Easter period, and the feature of the Irish Hunter Chase calendar, the Punchestown Champion Hunter Chase, which was won last year by UK raider Caid Du Berlais (pictured above).

As a result, Horse Racing Ireland have announced that there will be an enhanced National Hunt programme from October to December 2020, which will include a rescheduled Irish Grand National.

Brian Kavanagh, Chief Executive of Horse Racing Ireland said:
“Like many other sectors, the racing and breeding industry in Ireland will take a seismic economic blow from the fall-out of Covid-19.

“We will be working closely with Government to limit the long-term impact of this pandemic. We know that jobs will be lost in a key rural industry and that the viability of some industry institutions will come under serious threat.

“We are working on a range of industry supports which we hope to announce in the coming weeks. Once an achievable target resumption date can be identified, a new fixture list covering the rest of the year will be quickly published based on our on-going work, along with revised race programmes which will cater for the entire horse population.

“While the conclusion of the National Hunt season is a major blow for that sector and  jump racing enthusiasts, in making an early decision we want to give as much certainty as possible to owners and trainers and this plan will allow winter National Hunt horses to take advantage of summer grass, reducing the costs for National Hunt owners, with the knowledge of an enhanced programme to come for them from the Autumn onwards, circumstances permitting.”