LATEST NEWS

Let's do Cheletnham Festival in Ireland

It looks increasingly unlikely that anyone will be travelling to Cheltenham for the Festival this year. So WHY NOT enjoy the fun and excitement of the Cheltenham Festival with us here in Ireland. Race & Stay have orgainsed Cheltenham Race Packages in Kildare that can include: Morning Line Panel tipsters, BIG screen Cheltenham Race Previews and all the races live for the 4 days of the festival this year. Join us (socially distanced) for what promises to be a fab 4 days, Stay over with one of our great value Cheltenham in Ireland Packages and enjoy the craic for the festival.

What's The Current Position

Our last news post before the Christmas break, so Happy Christmas to you all. Sad to say that the current Covid-19 position seems to be getting worse not better and with the delay and slow rate of vaccinations here in Ireland it seems more likely as the days and weeks progress that we will not see the significant return of spectators to Irish tracks until much later this season. Hopefully The Irish Grand National on 3-5th April and Punchestown Festival 27th April - 1st May will go ahead as planned but that we cannot say for certain. Our best advice right now is to wait and see what the position and travel advice is nearer the race dates before making any travel plans that you cannot reverse. We will, of course, keep customers as informed as we can in the meantime.

Race Fixtures in Ireland 2021

Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) today published the fixture list for 2021, which will see the overall number of fixtures increasing from the original 2020 figure of 370 to 380 next year. The list contains 379 meetings at this stage, as one ‘floating fixture’ will be kept in reserve, to be programmed at short notice by the HRI Fixtures Committee at a time when demand for opportunities to run is very high. .

Owners Can Return

In line with the Government’s medium-term plan for Living with Covid-19, published earlier this week, Horse Racing Ireland today announced that from Monday next (September 21) owners will be welcomed back to Irish racecourses.
Government guidelines now permit racing and other outdoor events to have a limited number of spectators on the racecourse in addition to those necessary to stage the event. With owners a stated priority for HRI, the decision has been taken to allow two people per owner to attend from next week. Pre-meeting health screening and temperature checking will be required..

Pat Smullen

Sadly Pat Smullen, one of Ireland's best jockeys and ambassadors, has lost his fight and sucummed to the terrible Pancreatic Cancer that enforced his retirement over 2 years ago. All our thoughts at this time are with Frances and his three children, Hannah, Paddy and Sarah, as well as all his friends and colleagues and the many people who's lives he enriched on the way including ours at Race & Stay. RIP Pat, we will miss you terribly.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam .

Irish Champions Weekend

The Longines Irish Champions Weekend Committee has today confirmed that September’s Longines Irish Champions Weekend will now take place behind closed doors. The Committee’s recommendation, made in light of the current uncertainty around Covid-19, was approved by the Board of Horse Racing Ireland at their July meeting on Monday.

Crowds to Be Admitted Soon

The French government has announced that all sports stadia, including racecourses, will be reopened to the paying public from July 11, with a limit of 5,000 people in the initial stages.
The news came as part of a raft of announcements surrounding the easing of lockdown restrictions, following a late-night session of the Defence and National Security Council (CSDN), France's equivalent of the COBRA committee.
In a separate development, France Galop confirmed meetings scheduled for Auteuil, Longchamp and Saint-Cloud next week will take place at their intended venues, meaning racing will return to the capital for the first time since May 19.
Hers's hoping that the UK and Ireland will follow as soon as possible after then.

Make Racing Bigger and Better

Thank you to the Racing Post for publishing my open letter regarding the post Covid-19 landscape. "Racing’s festivals are the lifeblood of the industry, not ordinary racedays. They generate the most media and public interest, attendances and income for all. More should be done to ensure that a race programme should be formulated to maximise the benefits of festivals, and yes, to the detriment of smaller meetings."

2020 Race Fixtures

HRI (Horse Racing Ireland) have today released a revised fixture list for all remaining race days in 2020. Racing will resume from Monday 8th June behind closed doors, with Naas being the first fixture with strict Covid-19 protocols in place. Although spectators are not allowed at present this situation is fluid and may change in line with government and health authority advice going forward and our best guess (it is only our opinion) is that racing will be held with spectators from September onwards. . From us all at Race & Stay we wish all of the Owners, Trainers, Jockeys, Stable staff, Racecourses and Racecourse staff well. Stay safe and well everyone.

Racing in July

Following an annoucement by HRI today racing fixtures for July 2020 have been confirmed and currently are set to be run behind closed doors and with strict Covid-19 protocols in place. At least we are back racing which is a great relief to all in the industry, and although spectators are not allowed at present this situation is fluid and may change in line with government and health authority advice going forward. From us all at Race & Stay we wish all of the Owners, Trainers, Jockeys, Stable staff, Racecourses and Racecourse staff well. Stay safe and well everyone.

Racing Gets Back on Track

Following an annoucement by HRI and on advice from the Irish Government Horse Racing in Ireland is set to return behind closed doors and with strict Covid-19 protocols in place from Monday June 8th with the opening meeting at Naas. Horse Racing Ireland have released a new fixture list for June 2020 showing that the Classic 1000, and 2000 Guineas meeting will be held as usual at the Curragh, but later than its traditional end of May weekend this year on Friday 12th June (2000 Guineas) and Saturday 13th June (1000 Guineas and Tattersalls Gold Cup). The Irish Derby remains unchanged from its original date of Saturday 27th June. From us all at Race & Stay we wish all of the Owners, Trainers, Jockeys, Stable staff, Racecourses and Racecourse staff well. Stay safe and well everyone.

Lets Improve Irish Racing

When racing returns, and hopefully it will soon, who knows how well perceived it will be. It may be difficult to even retain even the pre-coronavirus level of public interest let alone emerge as a viable business. We are an entertainment industry as well as a sport and business and we now have a golden opportunity to radically improve what we offer. Each year HRI releases a fixture list full of race meetings that are poorly attended with generally low prize money, why? Well, there are, of course, many “industry professionals” that argue this racing is essential for the smaller trainer, for racecourses to generate income from media rights etc, etc, but the reality is they are of detrimental value.....

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Information for Guests

The spread and containment of Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a concern for travellers in general and of course our valued guests. Whilst you appreciate that individual Governments, not us, determine travel advice, and circumstances can change very quickly, we strongly advise that you keep up to date with any travel and health advice issued by your own government. As a result of the current uncertainty we have (today) updated our booking terms to assist with travel planning.