Curragh to stage first Good Friday meeting in Ireland

Racing will take place in Ireland on Good Friday for the first time in 2026 with the Curragh set to stage a fixture on April 3.

Horse Racing Ireland published the new fixture list with the number of meetings staying the same for the third successive year.

The Flat season will see an enhanced programme of Sunday fixtures beginning in May, while there will be seven blank Sundays in total – one more than in 2025.

Racing on Good Friday will come from the current allocation of fixtures at the Curragh which will mean the Guineas meeting will revert to two days for 2026. The Good Friday meeting is on an initial two-year trial basis.

There will be a condensed National Hunt season at Thurles to allow for more prudent ground preparation – moving one fixture from mid-March into late January and two fixtures in October to November and December. Fixtures at Thurles post March 2026 have been labelled ‘to be confirmed’ until the future of Thurles is resolved.

There are 11 fixtures allocated to Tipperary from April to October but once the track’s all-weather projects proceeds, some of these will be reallocated.

Jonathan Mullin, HRI’s director of racing, said: “Throughout the fixture process we were very conscious that a number of summer weekends, and in particular Sundays, needed a better-quality Flat offering and the fixture list for 2026 features a number of changes to reflect that aim.

“It can be seen from tweaks made to the winter National Hunt programme over the past couple of years, that consecutive Sundays of quality racing works well in terms of promotion and awareness, and returning some Flat fixtures of high quality to the Sunday roster has been brought about for 2026.

“The Good Friday fixture is a change of policy for Horse Racing Ireland and once the HRI fixtures committee reaffirmed their view at the outset of the process that this was a priority for 2026, we sought applications from racecourses and several expressed an interest. Ultimately the successful application came from the Curragh, which will include a number of community and industry initiatives as well as a considerable investment in extra prize money.

“The fixture list for 2026 also sees some movement in fixtures at Thurles to assist with ground management there as well as concentrating those fixtures in a time of the year when Thurles is seen to its best.

“This was an option we had raised with Thurles in early summer before their announcement to step away from the business and continued to make sense after the discussions had taken place between the Molony family, HRI and AIR to keep Thurles operational right through this season to March 2026.”