AS always at this time of year the thoughts of many are focussed on the fortunes of the various European yearling sales.

This week’s Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale marked the start of an absolutely critical four-week swing in the yearling sales season which will take in Goffs next week before the focus switches to Tattersalls for a fortnight.

At the top of the market there is every reason to believe that trade will be at least as strong as it has been in recent years but for the middle and lower tiers of the yearling market this always makes for an anxious time of year.

With this in mind, last week’s announcement of the Irish European Breeders Fund’s substantial enhancement of aspects of the Irish two-year-old programme for 2020 is praiseworthy and proactive.

At a time when the uncertainty created by Brexit, coupled with the phasing out of the Plus Ten Bonus scheme, present potential challenges for various aspects of the yearling market, last week’s announcement was timely to say the least.

The new initiative will see an improved series of median sires races rolled out with 24 races carrying a minimum prize fund of €25,000. In addition, this series will climax with a €200,000 two-year-old median sires race at Naas on August 3rd 2020.

This initiative will run alongside the already successful and widely acclaimed Irish EBF Foran Equine Auction Series which means that there will be a total of 50 two-year-old races run in Ireland which will be worth a minimum of €20,000.

In addition, the horses eligible for these races could run in both the newly created €200,000 median sires’ race as well as the now well established €120,000 final of the Foran series at Naas in October.

The purpose of the above is not simply to list out the prize money on offer for these races but rather to point out that this is a worthwhile initiative which is geared towards a part of the market that needs it most.

An increase in the prize fund for Group 1 or Group 2 races is unlikely to alter the line-up for those races dramatically, but an enhancement in the prize money on offer for horses who find themselves in the middle and lower tiers of the market can make a tangible difference to those that need it most.

Up to last night’s fixture in Dundalk there were 20 two-year-old auction races run in Ireland this season. They had been split between 13 different trainers and of that group there were 10 trainers who had saddled 20 winners or less in Ireland during the 2018 season.

Similarly, this year there have been 22 juvenile races run in the median auction sires bracket. These have been shared amongst 14 trainers, nine of whom saddled fewer than 20 winners in Ireland last year.

This should illustrate the worth of last week’s Irish EBF announcement. In the first instance it should help to act as a stimulus or indeed a steadying factor for a part of the market that is perhaps most vulnerable to external pressures.

Secondly, it represents a worthwhile use of resources and sees a notable level of prize money being channelled into a sector where some of the smaller flat yards in the country can make their presence felt to a meaningful degree.

At times the rate of progress and change in racing can be negligible but when proactive and beneficial decisions are made they should be recognised as such.

LAST Friday week saw racing return to Dundalk for the first time since early May. It was a keenly awaited card given the controversy that accompanied several of the track’s fixtures in the spring.

Around 54 tonnes of fibre was applied to the surface over the summer to add further body and elasticity to the track and the results were encouraging on several fronts.

The eight-race fixture attracted some 102 runners, a far cry from the mere 62 that turned out for a seven-race Sunday card in mid-April, not primarily accounted for by the time of year.

It was heartening to see a big turnout for last week’s fixture and a number of trainers and jockeys expressed themselves a good deal happier with the racing surface than was the case earlier in the year. It was also intriguing to note that the times from last week’s meeting suggested that the surface was riding quicker than usual.

Indeed Simon Rowlands has noted in this week’s paper that Abstraction’s winning time in the five-furlong handicap was the quickest at the track all year.

The vital role that Dundalk plays in Ireland’s flat programme cannot be underestimated. In recent years that track has acted as a tremendous showcase for some small yards and it also serves to provides a decent surface in the autumn and the spring when good ground can be hard to come by on turf.

The real test will come as the track settles in and tightens up over the course of the 33 fixtures that will take it to late April 2020 after which the surface at the track will be replaced.