New increased minimum riding weights for Irish racing are likely to be in place at the start of July.
On the flat the lowest weight a horse can carry will now be 8st compared to the 7-12 it was. There is also an increase over jumps where the new minimum will be 9-10 as compared to 9-7.
"There will have to be contact with Horse Racing Ireland to confirm things but I would imagine it will be in place by July 1st. We want this to happen sooner rather than later," said the Turf Club chief executive Denis Egan yesterday.
He was speaking after the publication of an extensive report by the Safety Review Group set up in the aftermath last year of the deaths of jockeys Sean Cleary and Kieran Kelly.
The nine-person panel, which included the top trainer Dermot Weld and the Gold Cup-winning rider Conor O'Dwyer, has worked for the last six months and presented a total of 99 recommendations that the Turf Club will now examine in depth.
"People might say 99 recommendations must mean that racing is in a bad way but a lot of the points are pretty obvious and just needed to be put in writing in terms of safety standards," Egan said.
The panel met with 18 separate racing bodies and reported back that two key elements for the future are improvement in jockey's helmets and dehydration levels.
The panel reported that helmet design will have to be improved and Egan said: "It will take time but we will enter into discussions with the manufacturers and see what can be done. But new European standards in helmet design are coming in anyway, so we shall see what comes of that."
As for the dehydration problem, the new mimimum weights have been agreed and drinking high caffeine content beverages is going to be "vigorously discouraged". It has also been strongly recommended that no rider should be allowed chew gum or sweets during a race.
One rider at this year's Punchestown festival narrowly avoided serious injury when nearly choking on a piece of gum after taking a fall.
Other steps recommended are that horses running in a hurdle race, a steeeplechase or a point-to-point for the first time should be in possession of a schooling certificate. Three successive falls could mean the horse is liable to re-certification.
A total of 20 riders are going to be sent to the National Coaching & Training Centre in Limerick and studies of those jockeys will determine any re-evaluation of the weights structures for both flat and jump racing. Another measure encouraged by the panel is the abolition of charity races for the rest of the year pending a full review of those contests.
