Irish racing abandoned in an attempt to halt the spread of coronavirus

The Irish authorities have forced the complete shutdown of horseracing in a bid to stem the spread of coronavirus.

Since 13 March, meetings in the country have been held behind closed doors, yet the cancellation of all racing will run until at least 19 April.

With UK racing already suffering a similar fate due to the epidemic, racing across the Irish Sea was plugging a hole in bookmakers’ lost business. So what will be the immediate impact of the sport being canned in Ireland?

“It’s difficult to tell at this stage,” says William Hill’s Rupert Adams “It was popular, there is no doubt about it, but actually the American racing in the evening is proving more popular than Irish racing as it is on at a good time.

“There is also some quite good Australian racing coming up this weekend, so it [the loss of Irish racing] is a blow but it’s not a bitter blow.”

Last Saturday, ITV screened five races from Thurles as an average audience of 434,000 tuned in to watch the action.

Four races on the card that day broke the £1m barrier for amounts matched on Betfair’s exchange, while there was a 192% year-on-year growth in the exchange’s turnover.

Betfair’s Barry Orr told EGR Intel: “It is not a massive blow in the greater scheme of things. Irish racing was keeping customers engaged, but I think it is good Irish racing has shown how to operate behind closed doors.

“So if things start to relax in six to eight weeks’ time, or maybe longer, there are systems in place in Irish racing that will allow them to revert back to racing behind closed doors.”

Meanwhile, the Tote has said it is working with international partners “during this time of disruption for everyone” and today announced that customers are now able for the first time to bet placepots on every meeting in Hong Kong.

Users can watch the action every Wednesday and Saturday from Hong Kong on the Tote website.