Hopes increase for resumption of jumps racing ahead of forecast weekend thaw

The arrival of a weekend weather thaw is being anticipated like the cavalry ahead of a rare pre-Christmas glut of Irish jump racing.

The latest in a list of scalps claimed by the bitter cold snap was Saturday’s Fairyhouse programme which was cancelled over 24 hours in advance. However, optimism is growing about Sunday’s pair of fixtures at Navan and Thurles getting green lights due to much milder overnight weather expected to sweep across the country.

Navan is set to hold a 3pm inspection on Saturday afternoon where a final verdict appears unlikely although emerging signs of a thaw could prompt another look the following morning.

Like Navan, Thurles was unraceable on Friday, but with temperatures starting to rise there are growing hopes within the sport that the wheels could be getting back on the National Hunt wagon.

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“Everybody wants to race and the indicators are definitely giving me cause for cautious optimism,” Navan’s clerk of the course Paddy Graffin said on Friday.

The veteran official has enough experience of the unpredictability of Irish weather conditions to not get too bullish just yet but remains hopeful.

“Our responsibility is the safety and welfare of the riders and the horses, and then there’s everyone else who has reasons to want to race. You take all those into consideration. I’m looking at the indicators and they’re telling me they’re going up into plus five or six overnight with a little bit of rain. In my experience rain usually brings a bit of warmth and positive temperatures.

“I then have to determine how quickly do I feel this is going to get into the ground to get the frost out of it. If it was only a window from 7.0 to 12.0 I’d be pessimistic. But I think I’m getting good cause for optimism that the temperatures are starting to go positive all Saturday evening. We’ll have to see how that plays out,” Graffin added.

One consequence of the freezing conditions is a logjam of rescheduled meetings going into next week. Punchestown’s Grade One John Durkan Chase programme has been refixed for Monday, followed by Naas a day later and Fairyhouse getting a new Wednesday date for its cancelled card. Dundalk’s all-weather fixture on Wednesday night had originally been the sole meeting next week ahead of the Christmas festival action.

The cross-channel outlook appears less optimistic with Lingfield’s Monday card the earliest possible chance of a resumption of jump action there.

Even Musselburgh which normally fares well in cold snaps has had to call off its Monday fixture 72 hours in advance due to frost.

The British Horseracing Authority moved on Friday to confirm additional jumps fixtures at Hereford and Ffos Las on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. It also confirmed an additional all-weather meeting at Kempton on Monday.

Both all-weather fixtures in England on Saturday will have to pass morning inspections.

Lingfield and Chelmsford are due to be covered live on ITV4 but temperatures in the south of England are forecast to reach as low as minus eight degrees overnight. “We were minus 8C this morning and minus 7C yesterday. Overnight temperatures are due to drop to minus 7C or minus 8C,” said Lingfield’s clerk of the course George Hill.

He is optimistic of racing going ahead, however, and added on Friday: “We are raceable now, so hopefully we will be racing. It is not an inspection; it is a precautionary inspection. People get confused about the terminology. An inspection is if you are not raceable, a precautionary is if you are currently raceable but the forecast suggests you might not.

“The reason I am doing a precautionary is because we have had three nights where we’re near minus 8C and it causes problems, rather than one night. It is a knock-on effect. We had a precautionary on Monday and Wednesday, so we’d be stupid not to, given the forecast of minus 8C.”

In other news, Henry de Bromhead has indicated one of his stable stars Bob Olinger will take his chance in the three-mile Christmas Hurdle on day three of Leopardstown’s upcoming festival. The race is named in memory of De Bromhead’s son Jack who died in September.

Bob Olinger, who finished runner-up to Home By The Lee in last month’s Lismullen Hurdle at Navan, also holds an entry in the two-mile Matheson Hurdle the following day.

“Obviously the dream would be to run in the Jack race and win it but we have to be pragmatic and see exactly what is the right course for him. He’s a very good horse and he stayed really well so that’s why you’d wonder is the two mile option worth investigating as well,” said De Bromhead.

The Co Waterford trainer’s Christmas team at Leopardstown could also include the Gold Cup hero A Plus Tard in the Savills Chase, a race he won in 2020 and was runner-up in a year ago.