ENTRIES for the first set of the Irish EBF Barrier Trials open at 9am on Thursday morning, with the opening fixture set to take place at Naas on Monday May 29th.

There are three fixtures set, with the second taking place at Limerick on July 3rd and the final at Dundalk on September 5th. Irish Thoroughbred Marketing organise the trials and are hopeful of attracting more interest this year by returning to turf tracks, having raced solely at Dundalk for the last three years.

Jeremy Greene of ITM said: “Dundalk were very good to us last year and we’re delighted to be hosting a fixture there again in September but we’re hoping that having two of the trials days back on turf and going down towards the south at Limerick might cater for more trainers.

“Lots of trainers from the south made the trip to Dundalk last year and have supported the meetings well, but this might make more appeal to them.”

The trials are for unraced two-year-olds and three-year-olds only and require a minimum of 50 entries to go ahead (maximum of 80 entries at Naas).

The turf meetings will be abandoned if the ground comes up heavy. The trials are recorded, timed and made available to view on ITM’s YouTube channel.

Caroline Street, Queen Maedbh and Lark In The Mornin went on to make an impact on the track having competed in barrier trials last season.