GOODBYE TO ENGLISH JUMPS BUT IRELAND KEEPS GOING: Voodoo Doll for Evan Williams at Taunton yesterday (5.10 hurdle) and Glencassley for Charlie Longsdon (5.25 Wetherby Flat race) were the last winners under NH rules in England until at least May, a decision which rules out the Grand National. But just as the sport despaired, Ireland sprang the biggest surprise for punters since: Mon Mome won at Aintree at 100-1. They’re racing on!
TOMORROW: THE CHAMPIONS: With the rest of the English season gone or in limbo, who are their Jumps-season champions? Daqman looks at tipsters, trainers, jockeys and horses. Who were the kings and queens of racing royalty before the season came to an abrupt end?
IRELAND SAYS CARRY ON RACING
English racing is out in the cold. Was it the right decision to wipe all meetings off the betting boards completely until May?
France hopes to resume in mid-April. Now Ireland has decided ‘we carry on’ after a key meeting at lunchtime today.
The objective was to continue racing amid warnings that the industry could not sustain a six-week break, alongside the one which started in England today.
‘Safety and health came first, but we were also aware that jobs are being lost left right and centre, and we wanted to do everything possible to prevent that,’ said a spokesman for Horse Racing Ireland.
The French and Irish decisions mean that England will miss its Grand National meeting but, perhaps more important, will lose the start of the Flat and its Classic trials; maybe even the early Classic races themselves, the Guineas at Newmarket, will have to be put back.
Fixtures which Ireland may now resurrect:
NH and AW:
Friday 20 March, Dundalk; Saturday 21, Thurles; Sunday 22, Naas, Downpatrick; Tuesday 24, Clonmel; Thursday 26, Cork; Friday 27, Dundalk; Saturday 28, Navan; Sunday 29, Limerick.
Start of the Flat: Sunday 29 March, The Curragh will mean that the only Lincoln Handicap this year may be the Irish Lincolnshire!
Further decisions in Ireland have to be made on the Irish Grand National (Fairyhouse, April 13) and on the Punchestown Festival (starts April 28).
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