Britain this week has seen multiple race meetings called off because adverse weather conditions and there is a threat to this weekends Dublin Racing Festival in Ireland but the Leopardstown staff are confident they will get the meeting on.
This week there has been meetings across the UK called off such as Fakenham, Wincanton, Leicester, Catterick, Lingfield and Plumpton.
This weekend the big racing takes place at Sandown and was supposed to also be at Musselburgh for their Cheltenham Trials weekend but it has recently been announced that both their Saturday and Sunday cards have been abandoned due to the weather conditions.
However, with all this bad news with meetings being called off left, right and centre there may be some good news coming from Leopardstown with the two day Dublin Racing Festival more than likely to go ahead with some big names like Apple's Jade, Footpad, Min, Melon and Road To Respect all likely to be in action.
(Credit Racing Post) Pat Keogh, Leopardstown chief executive, said on Wednesday: "We’ve had a dry day and there’s been no change in the ground conditions, which are good to yielding on the hurdle/bumper course and good on the chase course."
There is rain and sleet forecast for tomorrow. We’re happy with the position we’re in and will update the situation in the morning."
Sandown are another course hopeful of getting their meeting to go ahead on Saturday and at this moment in time it still is with the feature being the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novice Chase.
(Credit Racing Post)
Andrew Cooper, clerk of the course at Sandown, which also hosts the Contenders Hurdle and Heroes Handicap Hurdle on Saturday, is more optimistic, but concedes the better end of the forecasts will be needed for racing to take place."We’re raceable today.
"We had 5mm of rain and sleet last night and it got down to -2C.
"We’re expecting snow on Thursday afternoon into the evening, with up to 5cm. It’s going to stay cold on Friday.
"We’ve got several forecasts. The best forecast or even the better end of the worst forecast would give us a hope. I would expect we’ll end up making a decision on Saturday morning."