Normal service to resume

RACING: Prospects  appear to be brighter than the actual weather for racing's normal service to resume at the weekend.

The loss of Punchestown last Saturday has been followed by a total blank-out of midweek racing.

Yesterday's Downpatrick card was abandoned after heavy overnight rain while the programme scheduled for Gowran today fell victim to the weather on Tuesday.

However, the fixtures planned for Naas on Saturday and Clonmel on Sunday now look likely to go ahead.

The Naas manager Margaret McGuinness reported yesterday: "We should be all right. We have done a few jobs with the track and covered the bad area past the stands. The going is soft to heavy there but yielding to soft everywhere else."

A reasonable forecast is also boosting the hopes of the Naas authorities and there was an even more confident update from the Clonmel manager Jerry Desmond.

"The ground is soft here, no worse than that, and we are totally confident of going ahead. We identified two vulnerable areas last winter and did a lot of drainage work there which we are very happy with.

"It's a sand-slitting system. We raced on it in September and jumped for the first time on it on November 14th. It's working very well and I don't see there being any problems," Desmond said.

Willie Mullins is facing a battle against time to get his Pierse Hurdle winner Adamant Approach ready for Sunday week's Drinmore Chase at Fairyhouse.

"He did his first piece of work since coming back but the Drinmore might just be a little soon. Still, it is the race I have in mind for him," he said yesterday.

Mullins will be able to focus his full attention on the task as he is about to step down as chairman of the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association, who hold their a.g.m. at the Curragh on Monday.

Mullins has served for almost seven years in the job, a period of considerable change in racing.

"Foot-and-mouth and the setting up of Horse Racing Ireland were certainly the two big issues, and foot-and-mouth was a stressful time. There were so many stories from so many people about what might happen," he said yesterday.

"If foot-and-mouth was to hit us again, I would hope that racing wouldn't have to stop like it did last time. Things need to be in place so that measures can be taken immediately in order for racing to keep going."

Michael Grassick is favourite to take over as chairman of the association and Mullins has no doubts about the difficulty of the job.

"It certainly gives an insight into how people work. So many people have so many different viewpoints but I guess that is the way democracy works.

"The reality is that there are four different groups in the association: flat and jumps trainers and big and small trainers. Each one has to be looked after and I always tried to have a cross-section on the association council.

"I'm stepping down because I think I've done enough. I've done two full terms of three years and when John Oxx resigned, I did a year of his too. That's enough," he said.