Racing likely to go ahead despite weather

Racing in Ireland this weekend looks like going ahead despite the recent spell of bad weather.

Tomorrow's fixture at Naas is expected to go ahead and manager Paul Ryan said yesterday: "We are heavy, soft to heavy in places, and given the forecast, there isn't a question of us being in trouble."

It was a similar story at Fairyhouse where 18mms of rain fell overnight. Manager Niall Mackey said: "We are using the outside track on Sunday and that is perfectly raceable. The forecast is for 5mms more which is very little so all should be okay."

Cork also races on Sunday and the manager there, Michael O'Neill, reported: "We had 15mms overnight but the only danger is if the nearby river floods and all the signs are that that won't happen. The forecast is for less rain so we should be okay."

The howling gales pounding the British Isles robbed punters and racegoers of action at all three of yesterday's meetings.

That included the all-weather fixture at Wolverhampton, where jockeys brought their horses back after a failed attempt to go down to the five-furlong start for the first race at 1.30pm.

Officials were left with no option but to abandon - despite having only given racing the go-ahead after a 12.45pm inspection. Paul Hanagan, who was aboard Indian Sundance, said: "It's bad out there. Four of us nearly got blown off."

No problems are anticipated at Musselburgh today, with the Scottish track set to stage the only jumps meeting of the day after Chepstow was abandoned on Wednesday due to waterlogging.

But the weather could yet cause problems for the weekend fare as Haydock have called an 8am inspection today to determine their chances of racing tomorrow, while Ascot will look an hour later.

The ground is officially heavy at both tracks, with some areas of waterlogging.

Haydock clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright said: "We had 25 millimetres of rain last night and bits of the track are waterlogged so we couldn't have raced today. We have a couple of days though, and if that was the last of the rain, there's a chance it could improve. We do have some strong winds which could help so there is a chance."

Ascot counterpart Chris Stickels added: "We have had storms overnight and we have had about eight millimetres so far today following on from the rain yesterday.

"Ideally, we need it to be dry until Saturday really and it is very marginal."