Fairyhouse has emerged as the big winner from the fixtures re-shuffle forced upon racing by the foot-and-mouth crisis and the failure of the Punchestown track to pass an inspection.

The Co Meath track, who saw their traditional Easter festival postponed, have picked up three of the four days scheduled for Punchestown and will also have three days of their own annual highlight restored, with the Powers Gold Label Irish Grand National set to be run on Sunday, May 6th.

The Irish Horseracing Authority's fixtures and programmes committee met yesterday and decided that the Punchestown programmes will go ahead on the original dates of April 24th-27th, with Leopardstown picking up the last day.

Fairyhouse will also run its Easter festival over the May Bank holiday, starting on Friday, May 4th, and the resumption of racing will take place after a 50-days drought with two meetings on Easter Monday, at Leopardstown and Cork. The same two tracks will again race on May 17th.

Also on the Flat race front, a new two-day fixture has been stuck into the weekend of April 21st-22nd at the Curragh.

There was still a lot of bitterness yesterday over the failure of the Turf Club to pass the Punchestown track fit for racing.

The Punchestown manager, Charlie Murless, said: "We believe it is an unjust decision. We at Punchestown believe the track is raceable, but regrettably the system is such there is no appeal to a higher authority. We have no choice but to accept the decision. However, our reaction is one of great disappointment."

However, the Turf Club's chief executive, Brian Kavanagh, hit back and said; "Legally, we are obliged by the 1994 Act not to compromise on safety, and after the inspection the officials couldn't say the track is safe for racing."