Hopes for Leopardstown recede as Punchestown is off

RACING:HEAVY SNOW at Leopardstown yesterday dampened what had been rising hopes for Sunday's MCR Hurdle card going ahead as Irish racing faces into a possible blank weekend.

Officials at Punchestown yesterday pulled the plug on Saturday’s fixture after heavy snowfall at the Co Kildare course.

“We have had a lot of snow today and the forecast is for no great improvement in temperatures,” said the Punchestown manager, Richie Galway.

Attention now will focus on Leopardstown which hosts a prestigious card that is highlighted by the €100,000 MCR Hurdle, formerly known as the Pierse.

The Leopardstown manager, Tom Burke, was initially encouraged by what he found at the Co Dublin course yesterday morning, only for heavy snow to start falling.

“There was actually no frost in the ground here in the morning and I was very positive. But then it started snowing at about noon and we had a heavy snowfall,” he said yesterday. “The forecast is that snow shouldn’t be much of an issue after today but it looks like continuing very cold with daytime and nightime temperatures not getting very high at all. We could look at things on Thursday and assess the situation.”

The possibility of Punchestown’s fixture being rescheduled is being discussed although it may not happen next week with no sign of the cold snap releasing its grip.

Today’s meeting scheduled for Thurles was abandoned earlier in the week but has been rescheduled for tomorrow week, January 15th, by Horse Racing Ireland. HRI yesterday confirmed it will be an all-steeplechase six race card. Thurles will also host a seven-race fixture the day before.

Any racing action in the UK today will be confined to the all-weather tracks at Kempton and Lingfield.

Both courses were raceable yesterday but racing was still cancelled as the approaches to them were too dangerous for customers. Kempton and Lingfield are due to race again today and both will host morning inspections. Ffos Las in south Wales remains the only chance of National Hunt racing in the UK in the near future with Saturday’s Welsh Champion Hurdle card described as having a “fighting chance” of getting the green light.

Already today’s jumps fixtures at Huntingdon and Ludlow have been cancelled, as well as tomorrow’s at Bangor and Fontwell.

Saturday’s jumps cards at Sedgefield and Wincanton have been called off and Huntingdon on Sunday has already been claimed by the Arctic conditions. Ayr on Monday faces an 11am inspection today.

“It is not going to happen and we are just going through the motions,” admitted Ayr’s clerk of the course, Hazel Peplinski.

The all-weather fixture at Wolverhampton scheduled for tomorrow will undergo a 2.30pm inspection today after four inches of snow lay on the course yesterday evening.

However, only a light covering of snow was at Ffos Las yesterday and it is frost that is the main concern ahead of Saturday’s card which also includes the rescheduled Tolworth Hurdle, a first Grade One contest for the Welsh course.

“The only thing concerning us is that overnight temperatures are due to get decidedly lower by Thursday and Friday. Minus three and minus four is possible which wouldn’t be insurmountable as long as we can get the course protected,” said the Ffos Las clerk of the course, Tim Long.

“We do need the weather to be favourable, no doubt about that. We need a bit of luck, but we’ve got a fighting chance,” he added.