BRUCE Springsteen, the GAA, RTÉ and the Irish Open at the K Club have forced the Curragh to make some radical changes to race times for their Guineas festival next weekend.
Saturday’s card starts at 3.20pm and the Irish 2000 Guineas has been put back to 5.40pm. Sunday’s action starts at the much earlier time of 1.20pm, the 1000 Guineas will be the second race on the card and the Tattersalls Gold Cup will not be shown live on RTÉ.
Curragh manager Paul Hensey explained: “There is a major congestion of sport on television next weekend. One factor is the Irish Open at the K Club which is being covered by RTÉ on Saturday and Sunday.
RTÉ say they will finish their coverage early on Saturday, so we moved our times to ensure the feature races are televised.”
However, it was decided that similar tactics might not work on Sunday when a play-off in the golf could cause havoc with the television schedule.
Hensey said: “We are only going to have two races shown on RTÉ on Sunday and they have to be early on the card. The 1000 Guineas will be the second race on the card but, having discussed the matter with Edmond Mahony of race sponsors Tattersalls, we decided to leave the Tattersalls Gold Cup until later in the day to balance the card, even if it means it won’t be shown on RTÉ.”
Adding to RTÉ’s sports burden next weekend is an unusually large number of GAA championship matches. Hensey said: “Bruce Springsteen is playing two Croke Park dates at the end of the month and so the GAA have brought a number of games forward to next weekend. That is another factor affecting our airtime.”
The three Group 1 races are shaping up to be strong affairs. Air Force Blue and Galileo Gold will have a rematch in Saturday’s 2000 Guineas, while Ballydoyle will probably be odds-on for Sunday’s 1000 Guineas.
The Tattersalls Gold Cup looks especially high-quality, the likely runners including Found, Fascinating Rock, The Grey Gatsby, Time Test and Pleascach.
Hensey added: “The Tattersalls Gold Cup’s Group 1 rating was in danger just a few years ago but recent runnings have been strong and another top-class field next weekend could see the race jump in to the world’s top 20.”
Track management are also excited about Saturday’s Group 2 Weatherbys Ireland Greenlands Stakes which could feature Aidan O’Brien’s Australian import Vancouver, Dermot Weld’s American star Bobby’s Kitten and the Charlie Hills-trained Strath Burn.
“The ground is on the slower side of good at the moment but the forecast is for dry conditions and I would expect the going will be good for the Guineas meeting.”
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