No Irish Derby day return for bookmakers following dispute over pitch rules

It is more than a year since bookmakers traded on an Irish racecourse and Ray Mulvaney, chairman of the Irish National Professional Bookmakers Association (INPBA), has described himself as "bitterly disappointed" that a dispute over pitch rules means they will miss out on the Curragh's Derby day pilot event on Saturday.

The INPBA failed to agree to a temporary amendment of the pitch rules in time for the meeting.

Mulvaney revealed that he explored every avenue to get some of his members back on the racecourse on Saturday but, essentially, ran out of time.

He said: "It's bitterly disappointing that the bookmakers won't be there. I wish HRI, the Curragh and AIR all the best for the weekend and I hope the bookmakers will be back very shortly."

When it was suggested that it reflected poorly on the association that no bookmakers would be able to trade at the Curragh, Mulvaney responded: "I'm disappointed. I exhausted every avenue to get the bookmakers there. Unfortunately, I just ran out of time."

Bookmakers work under a legal framework on Irish racecourses that are called the pitch rules. They determine a bookmakers' seniority and their position on a racecourse.

'Hopefully this dispute can be resolved'

Given just seven bookmakers would have been permitted to work at the Curragh on Saturday and in different locations, it would have been impossible to uphold the original pitch rules, which is why they needed to be amended.

It was proposed that any changes made to the pitch rules would be temporary. However, following extensive talks between the Association of Irish Racecourses (AIR) and the INPBA, no agreement was reached.

The Racing Post also understands that, of the seven bookmakers who would have been selected to work the pitches on Saturday, the bookmakers with the longest seniority would have been towards the front of the queue.

That means the middle-to-smaller operators would have had little chance of working at the meeting, which is understood to have caused aggravation within the association.

Conor O'Neill, chairman of the AIR, said: "It's disappointing that, after 15 months without paying customers or bookmakers on an Irish racecourse as a result of Covid-19 that, when the opportunity for both to return to the Curragh on Saturday, the bookmakers couldn't reach an agreement among themselves to enable that to happen."

He added: "Hopefully this dispute can be resolved so that we can all look forward to having bookmakers back at Irish racecourses very soon."

There will be Tote facilities on course for the 1,000 people who will be in attendance on Saturday.

Read more on the 2021 Irish Derby:

2021 Irish Derby at the Curragh: the runners, the odds, the verdict

'Winning the Irish Derby would give us one of our best days in racing'

'It will be great to see people' – Curragh boss thrilled to see crowds return

Confirmed runners and riders for Saturday's Irish Derby at the Curragh

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