IHRA 3 Year Old Trotteur Francais Championship Series 2017…….

The focus of this heat handicap system is to encourage people to race until the final heat day and this will give a true reflection of the horses’ actual level.

• It will be based on average prize money as opposed to total prize money.
• All Heats and Finals to be run over 1 ½ Miles.
• First 2 Heat days will consist of all FFA, where the entries will be balloted for races and position.
• The points awarded will be as follows, 1^st 20 points, 2^nd 16 points, 3^rd 12 points, 4^th 8 points & 5^th 4 points.
• Prizemoney for the heats are €1,600 with entry €100 and the IHRA plan to have 40 heats in total.
• After the 2 initial heat days, the average points won will be calculated by dividing total points by number of races.
• Any horse that misses both or either of the first 2 races will be awarded 4th place points for either or both of his/her missed races to be used towards their average.

e.g. A horse who raced once in the first 2 weeks and finished 2^nd will be awarded 16 points for it’s 2^nd place plus the compulsory 8 points for the race day it missed. This would give a total of  24 points over the two race days but when averaged out by then divided 24 by 2 leaves it’s average at 12, or if it missed both weeks it gets 8 points for each heat missed, a total of 16 but when divided by 2, it forms it’s average at 8 points.

• After the first 2 weeks’ horses will be graded on their average, where the same average will be balloted.
• All horses to qualify for it’s average on Finals Day must have a minimum of 6 races to calculate his average otherwise he will be given 4th place (8 points) for however many short of the 6 races are needed to go towards his average.
• In the event of horses with the same average the horse with the highest total prize money goes in the higher race, if that is also the same then its ballot.
• The total numbers of horses for each Final are evenly split but if there is an odd number highest grades are allocated the extra horse.
• All horses ballot for position in Final
• When Three year old races are being held, Three year olds can only enter into these races.
• For heats only, Trainers/Owners with more than 2 horses in same heat will have the highest average horse opted up to next highest grade.
• No splitting for Trainers/Owners in Finals.

The first heats will be held at Portmarnock on Sunday 21^st May & Dundalk on June 4^th. The IHRA will publish the full list of 3 year old heats in the coming week, which will include heats at Annaghmore, Portmarnock & Cork.