Irish Champions Weekend to continue in its present format

The 'Longines Irish Champions Weekend' will continue in its present format in 2017 as Horse Racing Ireland's chief executive stressed how the meetings at Leopardstown and the Curragh need to be viewed as a single entity.

Saturday’s Leopardstown fixture saw an attendance of 14,550, the biggest in the three-year history of the €4.25 million ‘Champions Weekend’ project ,with victory for the French-trained Alamanzor in the QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes widely portrayed as a boost for the international element to Irish flat racing’s shop window project.

In contrast, the Curragh’s Sunday attendance dipped by over a thousand to 9,255 while its signature race, the €400,000 Palmerstown House Stud Irish St Leger, resulted in just a four-runner field, although the 1/7 favourite Order Of St George was upset by Wicklow Brave.

It added to suggestions that the Curragh leg of ‘Champions Weekend’ continues to struggle in comparison to Leopardstown ahead of its projected €65 million redevelopment which may not now be completed until 2019.

The idea that the two racecourses could eventually switch days – allowing the weekend to build towards an Irish Champion Stakes flourish on a Sunday – was not been ruled out by the HRI chief executive Brian Kavanagh on Monday but he confirmed there would be no alteration to the 2017 dates ahead of the likely publication of next year’s fixture list on Tuesday.

“I don’t see ‘Champions Weekend’ as two separate days. I think you have to look at it in its entirety. It’s not right to compare one with the other,” Kavanagh insisted.

“In relation to the Curragh a couple of races cut up and Leopardstown certainly got the breaks with the weather. But these are all things we look at when we review what’s happened and I must say I’m pleasantly surprised with the progress that has been made overall in just three years,” he added.

Kavanagh stressed that ambitions for the ‘Champions Weekend’ project will only increase and he wasn’t prepared to rule potential changes in or out, including the possibility of re-jigging days.

“We will consider everything, including the days situation. But it is not straight-forward. We have to take various considerations into account, including those of the racecourses themselves.

“Saturday is a better day for the corporate market which Leopardstown has positioned itself towards, while the Curragh is more towards a family day which Sunday suits better.

“There are other issues, such as whether or not running the Champion Stakes on a Sunday might clash with the Arc Trials in France, and any potential implications for developing international racing in that.

“But I’m not going to say yes or no to anything that might help us take this to a further level. What I can say is that we are set to publish the fixture list for next year and the ‘Champions Weekend’ fixtures are as is,” he said.