PLANS to improve the quality and quantity of Sunday racing in Britain next year could present opportunities for Irish racing, says Curragh Racecourse CEO Brian Kavanagh.

Last week the British Horseracing Authority announced a series of innovations for the 2024 fixture list. The main changes involve creating a ‘premier’ tier of fixtures with better prize money, focusing on quality on Saturday afternoons (from 2pm-4pm), beefing up Sunday racing, and cutting back on summer jumping.

With eight Sunday fixtures per year, the Curragh regularly hosts the best meeting of the day in Ireland or Britain, but that position of strength could be threatened by British racing’s plans next year.

Acknowledging that betting turnover is now an important revenue generator for racecourses, Kavanagh said: .”I actually think it will bring opportunity as there is a clear correlation between betting activity and the quality of racing.

“Better British racing on a Sunday should bring more television coverage which should inevitably spin off on Irish meetings. The two countries are so closely linked that any upgrade in Britain should also benefit Ireland. It should also serve as a catalyst for us to continue to develop our prize money levels.”

Asked if improved prize money for premier races in Britain would make it harder to attract British runners to the Curragh, and possibly draw some Irish runners away from races at home, Kavanagh said: “I don’t believe so. Trainers will tend to send their horses where they feel they will be competitive and, post-Covid, we have had a good stream of British runners here.

“The key is to offer competitive prize money and good racing conditions and we will work to ensure that we do both.

“Thanks to our sponsors and the allocation of some of our own funds to prize money we have been able to increase our values again this year. No race at the Curragh will be worth less than €15,000 and on classic/Group 1 weekends, €20,000. Our prize money on Derby weekend this year will be €356,000 higher than last year.”

A total of 14,653 people attended the three-day Irish Guineas Festival last weekend, which was 15% up on the previous year. “We were delighted with the atmosphere and have got a lot of positive feedback about it,” Kavanagh said. “No doubt the weather helped but it was good to see some of our changes being well received – band after racing on Friday; new champagne bar; new coffee shop; mobile food units, and the screen in the bookmakers’ ring.”

After six meetings this year attendances at the Curragh are up 6% overall. Kavanagh commented: “For me, the most important criteria are the quality of the racing and the quality of the customer experience. We obviously measure financial parameters such as admissions, hospitality sales, race sponsorship, food and beverage sales, bookmaker and Tote betting and streaming levels, but generally they will follow the first two criteria.”