HANDLERS who do elect to run their horses this weekend will be required to present the passport of their intended runners at the time of declaration in what is the main rule change for the new season.

The passport of a horse being declared to run at a point-to-point meeting must be presented to the Clerk of the Scales or the hunts relevant declaration clerk at the time of declaration.

The Irish Horse Racing Regulatory Board (IHRB) has instructed hunt officials not to take a declaration for a horse without a passport, with photocopies of passports in any format not being accepted.

In the past, a handler may have asked his or her intended rider, who would often be at the track before them, to declare the horse on their behalf ahead of their arrival at the track with the horse.

This will now only be possible if the rider is in possession of the passport at declaration time, which is a point the IHRB are keen to publicise in order to avoid any connections being prevented from running, having initially informed them of this when each handler received their permit confirmation letter.

The production of passports was one of the measures introduced during the Equine Flu outbreak, and there will be a slight alteration to one of the procedures that was brought in at the same time regarding the checking of passports for out-of-date flu vaccinations.

Previously all passports were checked for the correct flu vaccinations, however the IHRB officials at each fixture will now be supplied with a list of horses whose flu vaccination requires checking, as the date of the last vaccine that was on the passport when it was supplied to the IHRB as part of the hunter certificate application process, has passed.

The officials will also continue to check a random selection of the other passports supplied upon declaration at each point.

LAST year, an unseasonably dry autumn ensured good ground was one of the stories of the autumn season, with the delayed arrival of soft ground, proving to be a real frustration for owners and handlers.

Those connections of winter-ground horses did not get soft ground at a point-to-point until Corbeagh House in early December.

It looks set to be a different picture this season, and hunt committees will be hoping to build upon the increased average entry from last spring, buoyed by early positive signs within the initial hunter certificates.

A total of 434 horses had already received their hunter certificates by the beginning of the week.

This represents a positive increase on the same point 12 months ago, which hopefully indicates a readiness from connections to get their horses out early in the season, supporting those committees that occupy early season slots.