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Five Irish Tracks Reject Media Rights Deal

For the first time in history, Irish racing looks set to have two separate providers of pictures after five racecourses rejected a media rights deal on Tuesday.

At a groundbreaking general meeting of the Association of Irish Racecourses (AIR) held at the Keadeen Hotel in Newbridge, the five members of the United Irish Racecourses (UIR) voted against the five-year deal worth €47 million.

That means that the five tracks–Kilbeggan, Limerick, Roscommon, Sligo and Thurles–are now free to negotiate their own separate deal, presumably with Arena Racing Company, which could pave the way for Irish racing to return to Sky Sports Racing in 2024.

The current deal, which is due to expire at the end of this year, is with Sports Information Services [SIS] and Racecourse Media Group, which sees all Irish racing broadcast on RTV.

It is understood that UIR received “an unsolicited offer” of €100,000 per fixture from Arc last year, but the five tracks now have to request HRI's media rights committee to negotiate another contract for them

The new deal with SIS and RMG was given “preferred bidder” status last year by the Media Rights Committee, which consists of five executives from AIR and Horse Racing Ireland.

However, the five tracks expressed their dissatisfaction with the deal back in January and formed UIR. The discontent stems from how the media rights are distributed by HRI and how the funding model favours the bigger tracks.

Conor O'Neill, chairman of HRI's media rights committee, focused on the positives of the deal on Tuesday.

He said, “It's a fantastic deal and I'm delighted for the 21 racecourses who have signed up to secure it today. I would like to thank the board of AIR and our CEO Paul Hensey for their hard work and support. I would also like to especially thank our former CEO Paddy Walsh who has worked tirelessly on achieving the best possible deal for our members and the HRI media rights committee whose commitment has been extraordinary throughout the entire process.”

O'Neill added, “Although it's disappointing that it was not approved by all, today is a very positive day for the future of Irish racing, let's not take away from that. I look forward to continuing our partnership with SIS and RMG for the overwhelming majority of Irish racecourses, subject to the approval by the HRI board on Friday.”

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Bumper Catalogue For The Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale

A total of 416 stores have been chosen for the Tattersalls Ireland 2023 Derby Sale, set to take place June 28-29 at Fairyhouse, the sales company announced on Tuesday. All horses catalogued for the Derby Sale are eligible for the 2024 €100,000 Tattersalls Ireland George Mernagh Memorial Sales Bumper.

The Derby Sale achieved more winners at the Dublin Racing Festival, Cheltenham Festival and Aintree Festival than any other store sale again this year and has claimed 12 Grade 1s in 2023.

“Exceptional doesn't come close to what we have on offer at this year's Derby Sale,” Simon Kerins, CEO of Tattersalls Ireland, said. “Our team have worked tirelessly with vendors to handpick the best individuals with pedigrees to match, resulting in an outstanding line-up of superior National Hunt prospects–a catalogue that is unparalleled in quality.”

The catalogue is now available to view online.

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Entries for Arc Close Tomorrow; Maximum Number of Runners Increased

Entries for the G1 Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, worth €5 million this year and set to be contested on Sunday, Oct. 1, close tomorrow, Wednesday May 10, at 10:30 a.m., France Galop announced.

For this year's running, the Executive Board of France Galop decided to increase the maximum number of runners from 20 to 24. The change was made after last year when the 20-runner limit led to several being eliminated at the final declaration stage.

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Classic Dreams Spun On The Roodeye

Chester's unique “Roodeye” course swings back into action on Wednesday, with the often-informative three-day May Festival kicking off with the G3 Boodles Chester Vase and Listed Weatherbys Digital Solutions Cheshire Oaks starting the raft of English trials for the Derby and Oaks.

With the Epsom picture clouded by the outcome of the 2000 Guineas and no obvious candidate emerging from the 1000 Guineas, we are officially into the informative period and the silly season at the same time with the next fortnight set to witness the usual violent fluctuations of fortunes and ante-post prices ahead of the two crowning middle-distance Classics.

Chester's Vase and Cheshire Oaks tend to produce more place prospects than heroes at Epsom, but this is a year where a Ruler Of The World (Ire) could emerge even if the prospect of another Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) might be asking a bit much. The Vase sees Juddmonte's Arrest (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) re-engage with Ballydoyle's Adelaide River (Ire) (Australia {GB}) after they were second and third respectively and separated by six lengths in the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud in October. Given that the race's winner Dubai Mile (Ire) (Roaring Lion) neither excelled nor let the form down in the Guineas on Saturday, both probably need to do something impressive here to make big waves in the Derby market.

Interestingly, Arrest's prior efforts have also come to take on greater merit. A debut third to the G1 Dewhurst S. third Nostrum (GB) (Kingman {GB}) at Sandown in July, the John and Thady Gosden trainee beat Sea Of Roses (GB) (Sea The Moon {Ger}) convincingly at Ffos Las before she went on to beat the Oaks mover Infinite Cosmos (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and finish runner-up to Pensee Du Jour (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) in the G3 Prix Penelope.

Barry Mahon, European racing manager for Juddmonte, has misgivings about the course. “Chester is probably not his ideal track, but we were meant to go to Sandown and unfortunately it was abandoned with the rain,” he explained. “The Vase was Plan C, as originally we were going to the Dee S. but the forecast is giving plenty of rain coming in on the Wednesday afternoon and night, so we said we'd go for the fresh ground on Wednesday.”

“He was a big frame last year and he is definitely a stronger horse this year,” Mahon added. “John and Thady said the other morning that the experience of Chester would do him good. If we ended up going to Epsom, he will have that under his belt. We have seen it in the last few years with Aidan and Barry Hills before that, they all take them to Chester for the reason that they get that experience, with the crowd on top of them.”

Oaks On Her Dancecard…

Aidan O'Brien has won four of the last seven Cheshire Oaks and seven in total, so the yard's likely hot favourite Savethelastdance (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is the obvious place to start. She may have been 20-1 as she captured the same 10-furlong Leopardstown maiden in which last year's winner Thoughts Of June (Ire)–also by Galileo (Ire)–had been second, but she has made a leap forward from two to three and is as live an Oaks candidate as there is around at the moment. Dash Grange Stud's Listed Koln-Winterkonigin Trial winner Sirona (Ger) (Soldier Hollow {GB}) is also sure to have more to offer at three, even if she disappointed when trailing as the re-opposing Luckin Brew (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) was second in the Listed Silver Tankard S. at Pontefract in October.

Sirona's owner Jayne McGivern said of the Charlie Johnston trainee, “She has wintered really well. She is working well at home and is bred for distance and we were surprised at how well she had done as a 2-year-old over a mile. We kind of were not expecting that. This will tell us a lot about her. She had a fantastic page when I bought her, she's not overly big, but her confirmation's great and she surprised us how good she was and she got black-type. I think the Silver Tankard was a race too far, as she had a few races in quick succession.”

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