As I reported earlier this month Horse Racing is set to resume in Ireland behind closed doors on June 8th with action in Naas. There is in total 47 meetings in July alone. However, there will be three days now with no racing in month due to extra meetings been added. The director of horse racing Ireland Jason Morris said, “We recognise that there will be a large demand for opportunities to run and our aim is to provide all Flat horses with their first run as quickly as possible following the resumption of racing by offering a balanced programme across all age groups, distances and categories. There will be 53 flat meetings up to the end of July with this objective in mind”.

Mr Morris said that 22 national hunt meetings will take over June and July, compared to 17 between the same time last year. He continued, “There will be eight-race cards run at every opportunity where stable capacity allows, with the protocols requiring one stable per horse for hygiene reasons”.

The Galway Racing Festival will take place from July 27th to August 2nd. However, there will be some changes to recent year’s. The first two days of the festival will see flat racing only. This will be followed by National Hunt racing on the Wednesday. Thursday and Friday. The final two days of the meeting will be flat cards according to Horse Racing Ireland. Looking at some other courses, Killarney has seen it’s racing cut from five days to three days. Racing will begin in Cork on July 5th, which will be the first of four meetings at the track.

Bellewstown in Meath will host three meetings, with the first on July 2nd. Leopardstown will host meetings beginning on June 9th right up to the end of July. Meanwhile, the Curragh will host the Irish Tattersalls Gold Cup on Sunday the 26th of July.

The full list of horse racing meetings can be viewed here.

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Gillon McLachlan said that all clubs can return to training from Monday the 18th of May. He went on to say that full contact training can resume a week later on the 25th of May. He said, “Today’s a significant step in getting footy back for everyone, our fans, clubs players, coaches … and all who love the game,”. He continued, “We know as the situation continues to evolve, we need to remain agile and flexible, to be able to adapt where necessary.”

McLachlan did state that staff and players will be tested for the virus, while also getting some education around the virus itself. The measures will mean that each player and staff member will be tested twice a week. Furthermore, he said, “We have bi-weekly testing of every player at least 24 hours before the contact sessions and we’ll have the results back before they’re allowed to do contact sessions or play games,”.

He said that a burden must not be put on the healthcare system in Australia. He stated,”We must not place any burden on the public health system,”.”Our industry understands the opportunity we have been given, we also fully understand and accept our responsibility to our football family and to the wider community.”

However, four teams based in Western Australia and Southern Australia will have to relocate in hubs in eastern states where exemptions have been granted. Fremantle and Gold Coast Suns will complete pre-training at home before moving to the Gold Coast ahead of their first games. Furthermore, Port Adelaide and Adelaide will move in the next days or so. McLachlan acknowledged that the AFL schedule will have to flexible for it to not conflict with other sports. He said, “So if it plays out that we’re coming into the T20 World Cup or racing we’ll work around it with them and we’ll get an outcome that works for sports fans and for other sports, for everyone.

Australia have faired out quite well with their lockdown procedures. For a large country they only reported 7,000 or so cases.

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A provisional program released means the 2000 guineas will take place on June 6th. Furthermore, the 1000 guineas will take place on June 7th. Royal Ascot still remains pencilled in from June 16th to 20th. However, the exact schedule is likely to change, while the Queen is also not expected to attend the event for the first time in 68 years. A British Horse Racing spokesperson told BBC Sport, “There will be some changes to the order of races at Royal Ascot, which will be confirmed as soon as possible,”.

The UK government announced that no sport will be allowed take place until June 1st at the earliest. However, horse racing authorities had hoped to run some big races in the last two weeks in May. This will obviously not be the case now. A new timetable, with safety and social distance measures are now been drawn up with a June return now likely.

The British Horse Racing Spokesperson did state than the plans could change before, stating that the provisional plan may need to be adjusted according to when it is safe to do so by authorities.

The following are big races which look set to be held in the first week in June:

Wednesday 3 June or Thursday 4 June

Classic Trial (10f, 3yo, Group 3, Sandown)

Snowdrop (8f, 3+, Listed, Kempton)

Dahlia (10f, 4+, Group 2, Newmarket)

Palace House (5f, 3+, Group 3, Newmarket)

Sagaro (16f, 4+, Group 3, Sandown)

Newmarket (10f, 3, Listed, Newmarket)

Sunday 7 June

1,000 Guineas (8f, 3, Group 1, Newmarket)

Pretty Polly (10f, 3, Listed, Newmarket)

Buckhounds (12f, 4+, Listed, Ascot)

Cecil Frail (6f, 3+, Listed, Haydock)

Spring Trophy (7f, 3+, Group 3, Haydock)

Pinnacle (12f, 4+, Group 3, Haydock)

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