Leopardstown to continue watering policy next week

Even with snow currently still lying on the track, Leopardstown officials reckon watering will be needed next week ahead of the four-day Christmas festival.

Conditions were unraceable at the south Dublin course on Thursday due to frost but a forecast thaw over the weekend has come in plenty of time before one of the most important festivals of the year.

On the back of a prolonged cold snap that continues to decimate the National Hunt programme, there was a reassuringly positive “racing will go ahead” bulletin from Leopardstown’s chief executive.

That is despite long-range predictions that any major thaw could be short-lived with colder weather anticipated on the run-up to Christmas.

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However, temperatures are not forecast to get anywhere as cold as they have been.

“It’ll be fine. Racing will go ahead,” Tim Husband said. “It’s only actually over the last few days that we probably haven’t been able to race since the more recent frost: as of last Friday, we were still able to run.”

Renowned for having something of a microclimate of its own, Leopardstown’s focus could instead return to its long-running issue of ground conditions getting too quick, particularly on the steeplechase course.

The 2019 Irish Gold Cup was memorably reduced to just four runners with half a dozen horses taken out late due to the going.

The difficulty in preventing the ground from speeding up was underlined last Christmas when a couple of inches of rain fell in a Christmas Day downpour yet watering had to take place on day two of the festival.

Attempts to address the issue have been taking place for the last six months ahead of the resumption of National Hunt racing at Leopardstown.

The chase course has had watering, linear aeration, top-dressing with organic matter, overseeding and what is described as an “ongoing programme of vertidraining and use of wetting agents”.

Those efforts will continue on the countdown to Christmas and include a resumption of watering once the frost has disappeared.

“We would be watering anyway as part of our programme that we’ve been doing over the last six months or so on both the tracks.

“Before the freeze, we were yielding on the hurdles track and yielding, yielding to good on the chase track.

“The frost won’t do us any damage actually; it will help retain the moisture over the period. Obviously, we could do with a bit of defrosting over the weekend but we’re comfortable where we are. The aim is to get as near to yielding as possible,” Tim Husbands said.

“I live in the midlands and I can’t see any other snow anywhere apart from Leopardstown – it’s a little bit unique!” he added.

A 9.0 inspection on Friday morning underlines doubts surrounding whether or not the following day’s Fairyhouse programme will go ahead.

The situation is also being monitored ahead of Sunday’s two Irish programmes although the long-awaited thaw could come in time for them.

Navan is unraceable currently and will hold a 3.0 inspection on Saturday afternoon ahead of a card that includes a Grade Two novice hurdle.

Temperatures are expected to rise significantly on Saturday night into Sunday leaving officials at the course hopeful of going ahead.

Thurles was frozen in places and unfit to race on Thursday but there is currently no inspection planned there.

The first chance of any cross-channel National Hunt racing going ahead is Fakenham’s card scheduled for Monday.

The valuable weekend jumps action is already wiped out with all-weather racing having the stage to itself.

Ffos Wales in south Wales came close to racing on Thursday but although the course was raceable the stable area was frozen, forcing the meeting to be called off.

In other news, the British Horseracing Authority has confirmed the Grade One Long Walk Hurdle scheduled for Ascot on Saturday has been moved to Kempton on St Stephen’s Day.

The move was welcomed by trainer Nicky Henderson who hopes to run Champ in the race, potentially in another clash with Paisley Park who he defeated at Newbury last month.

“That would be very good news from Champ’s point of view and no doubt Paisley Park’s as well. The great thing is these two grand old warriors can go at it again and no doubt some others will join in. It was a great battle the other day and luckily it went our way,” he said.