THE Curragh is set to break new ground by staging its first nine-race card in living memory on Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby day, Sunday June 30th.

The move is designed to enhance the racing product on offer to World Pool bettors, and also brings a prize money boost of €50,000 to the Maddenstown Premier Handicap for three-year-olds. The nine-furlong contest will be switched from the opening Friday card to Sunday, and will double in value to €100,000.

The Curragh was said to have received a dividend of approximately €500,000 from its Irish Derby day association with the World Pool last year, when the meeting attracted total betting of HK$251 million (€29.5 million) through the collaboration of global totes.

Curragh CEO Brian Kavanagh told The Irish Field: “Newmarket did this a couple of weeks back for their Guineas meeting and this is something we’ve had our eye on for some time. It’s being done with the World Pool in mind and to enhance prize money. We’re looking forward to it.

“It’s certainly the first time I can remember having nine races on a day here. We should be okay capacity-wise; there’s a varied programme that day with a Group 1, a Group 2, two listed races and a series of handicaps. It’ll be good for people to have a chance to have a runner on Derby day.”

Guineas reflections

There was a slight drop in attendance over the three-day Tattersalls Irish Guineas Festival, with a total crowd of 14,088 in comparison to 14,773 a year earlier. There were 3,425 at Friday’s fixture (versus 3,571 in 2023), 5,652 on Saturday (5,977 in 2023) and 5,011 on Sunday (5,125 in 2023).

Kavanagh said: “We’re happy enough with the weekend but will sit down and have a proper review of it all. We were very happy with the racing. The interesting thing for me was the competitiveness of the British-trained runners. All 11 finished in the money. I think we had strong renewals of the Group 1s and it was great to see the Murphys winning a Group 1 with White Birch.

“The weather probably didn’t play ball with us on Sunday but, overall, in terms of crowd and betting figures we were happy enough”

Potential changes to Epsom’s Derby Festival structure have been discussed in recent weeks, as officials consider ways to develop what are currently Friday-Saturday cards.

When asked about whether the Curragh could adapt its existing three-day Guineas Festival format, with Friday being considerably the quietest day of the meeting, Kavanagh said: “We’ll have a look at that with Horse Racing Ireland at the fixture process for next year and see whether it’s a two-day or three-day meeting going forward.

“That’s something we will have a look at, but it’s too early to take a definitive view.”

Prize money spread

Leading trainer Ger Lyons, who struck with a double on Guineas weekend, suggested on a recent edition of The Irish Field’s Leading The Field podcast that he was not in agreement with the Curragh’s decision to increase the minimum value for all races run at the track to €20,000 while higher quality races are not seeing reflective prize money boosts across the board.

Describing it as “the epitome of ridiculous”, Lyons explained: “In their wisdom, they’ve thrown in a couple of 47-65 and 47-70 races, which get the very same prize money as a 0-90 race or a maiden winner… That’s just not right. It’s back to the situation where everyone in the room gets a medal. Is that where we are?

“I personally don’t think that grade of race should be at the Curragh. We have plenty of tracks in the country for that grade. I’ll be vilified for saying that, but there’s a time and a place for those races. Tracks like the Curragh and Leopardstown sell the industry to the world. We don’t need to be selling 47-65 races to the world.”

When asked about the situation, Kavanagh responded: “I think there’s something for everyone here at the Curragh, I think you need a broad mix of runners and owners. We’re trying to drive up prize money across the board. I take the point that by raising the minimum value, it does now put pressure to raise the value of the next line of races, and that’s the next thing we’ll look at. No disagreement with that point.

“One thing that’s been noticeable this year is that there’s been a very good spread of winning trainers throughout the start of the season. We stage a very strong maiden and blacktype programme, and I think it’s good to balance that with a full range of races. We’ve got high safety limits here, which means we’re attractive to stage some of those races.

“It’s not a case of reduction in quality - we have 24 fixtures here so there’s plenty of room for all races across the year. I’d say Ger and myself share the same view on needing to drive prize money forward.”