2022 horseracing schedule revealed

Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) has published the 2022 schedule with the overall number of fixtures increasing to 390 next year which includes three ‘floating fixtures’ to be programmed at short notice when demand for opportunities to run is very high.

The number of fixtures for 2022 is an increase of 10 on this year’s original figure, with seven additional Turf fixtures and three All-Weather fixtures scheduled.

The overall number of turf fixtures will be 346 (up from 339) with 44 All-Weather fixtures (up from 41).

The number of blank Sundays has been retained at six (April 24, June 19, July 24, August 28, September 4 and October 9).

The number of Saturday evening meetings is reduced from four to three: - Bellewstown (July 2), Kilbeggan (August 6) and Tramore (August 13).

The seven days of the Galway Festival will be run as mixed meetings (Flat and National Hunt), as will the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the Listowel Festival and ‘Super Sunday’ at Tipperary on October 2.

The opening day of the 2022 Flat Turf season will be at the Curragh on Saturday, March 26.

A weekend of quality Flat racing will continue at Naas the following afternoon (Sunday, March 27), giving the new season a higher-profile launch.

The Curragh will host a three-day Guineas Festival with an additional fixture on Friday, May 20 .

Dundalk’s Winter AWT Finals meeting will now be held on Friday, March 25. There will be four Wednesday afternoon AWT fixtures in January and February.

A significant adjustment to the National Hunt calendar will see a later date for the Munster National meeting at Limerick. The fixture has been moved back two weeks to Sunday, October 23 to provide the ideal calendar location between the Kerry National at Listowel on Wednesday, September 21 and the Troytown Handicap Chase at Navan on Sunday, November 27.