Cork Racecourse Mallow provides the only horseracing on Wednesday

Punters and industry bookmaking firms across the United Kingdom and here in Ireland will have their focus entirely on Cork Racecourse Mallow on Wednesday. 

There will be no racing in the United Kingdom, so Cork Racecourse will be the epicentre for punters and layers alike looking to obtain a financial edge. 

British horse racing is set to strike on Wednesday, taking the unprecedented action of refusing to race in protest against the Government's proposed tax rise on betting on the sport. 

The four fixtures scheduled for Wednesday at Lingfield Park, Carlisle, Uttoxeter and Kempton Park have been rearranged by the British Horseracing Authority. 

The strike is part of the industry-wide Axe The Racing Tax campaign.

It is the first time the sport has voluntarily refused to race in modern day history.

The governing body is campaigning against the Treasury's proposal to introduce a single remote gambling tax, which would increase the 15% tax rate paid by bookmakers on racing - aligning it with online gaming, currently taxed at 21%.

That ensures there will be wall to wall coverage from Cork Racecourse on the dedicated horse racing channel Racing TV. 

It's another opportunity to showcase what Dermot Weld has described as arguably the best flat racing track in Europe. 

Cork stages a flat card on Wednesday with the opening race the €27,500 Irish EBF Auction Series Race due off at 4.10pm. 

That's one of seven races on an attractive card which also features the Coolmore Gleneagles Irish EBF Maiden which was won last year by Comanche Brave. 

He finished fifth in this year's Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh and won a hot race at Naas in July.

Cork maiden races have traditionally been the launching pad for many smart horses. 

Minnie Hauk, winner of this year's Epsom, Irish and Yorkshire Oaks began her career at Cork last October. 

She went off the 13/8 favourite that day, but she had to settle for second place behind Wemightakedlongwa in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Maiden. 

Ironically, that pair finished first and fourth in the Epsom Oaks in June and first and second in the Irish Oaks in July, with Minnie Hauk reversing last October's Cork form.

Arguably one of the most impressive flat winners that I saw win at Cork Racecourse was Dermot Weld's Harzand on Easter Saturday in 2016.

He landed sustained market support that day too from 6/4 with one firm in the morning into 4/9 from an opening show of 4/6 on-course in the ring.

He bolted up by a whopping sixteen lengths from the Ballydoyle colt Sword Fighter in the ten furlong Blackwater maiden, landing the short priced punt. 

He went on to win the Group Three Ballysax Stakes and despite a late injury scare, he won the 237th running of The Derby. 

Three weeks later he won the Irish Derby at the Curragh. 

Cork Racecourse was the springboard to launch his arrival on the international stage. 

He certainly devoured the opposition on that 2016 Easter Saturday in Mallow.

Ger Lyons' Magnum Force, winner of the 2024 Juvenile Turf Sprint at the Breeders Cup, was another horse to win his maiden here in Cork, last August. 

Match of the day on Wednesday’s card takes place at 4.40pm. 

The 85 rated Charles Fort clashes with Ger Lyons Strike Zone,third on debut at Navan. 

The market might be the best guide near the off in what looks to be a dead match.