Leopardstown to water steeplechase track ahead of Christmas festival

Leopardstown officials have confirmed they will be watering the steeplechase track there ahead of the upcoming Christmas festival.

Controversy has enveloped action on the chase track course in recent years with criticism of quick conditions and failure to implement enough of a watering policy.

The 2019 Dublin Racing Festival was decimated with non-runners after 22 horses were taken out on the second day of that meeting alone due to ground conditions.

Michael O’Leary was among those critical about a failure to water on that occasion and the Ryanair boss said there was “almost a horse welfare issue” involved.

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On the final day of last year’s Christmas festival, the Grade One Neville Hotels Novice Chase was cut to just three runners after three of the original declarations were taken out due to the going.

After that, Eddie O’Leary of Gigginstown Stud described the chase track as too quick and demanded more watering.

Selective watering

On Tuesday Leopardstown’s chief executive Tim Husbands said the going on the chase track is currently “good to yielding, good in places”.

The turf on the hurdles course is easier, described as “yielding, and yielding to soft in places”.

Husbands said: “There will definitely be selective watering taking place. We are conscious of the experience of last year. We are acutely aware of that.

“When I say good to yielding, good in places, we will be doing selective watering in those areas, which are few and far between.

“The course is in great nick, really good nick. It’s holding a lot of moisture. There is rain forecast over the next few days. We will take another turn on Monday and take it from there. But we’re happy where we are.”

He added that the longer-term weather outlook ahead of the four-day festival which begins on St Stephen’s Day appears to be okay in terms of any potential disruption.

Possible runner

That could be good news for those eager to see Samcro tackle three miles for the first time on a racecourse in the Savills Chase on Day Three of the festival.

The dual-Cheltenham festival winner features alongside last year’s winner Delta Work as a possible runner for Gigginstown.

“To me, he’s a horse for three miles but we’ll see. We will have a go, either here [the Savills] or somewhere. But we will give him a chance at three miles. He’s still in the mix [for Leopardstown],” Eddie O’Leary said on Tuesday.

Another Gigginstown star set to line up over Christmas is the Morgiana winner Abacadabras.

He got the better of Saint Roi at Punchestown last month and the pair are set to clash again in the Matheson Hurdle on the final day of Leopardstown.

On Tuesday O’Leary described Abacadabras as Gigginstown’s best chance yet of winning a Champion Hurdle.

“We wouldn’t swap him. If people want to take another view [on the horse] they can. The only view that counts is the lollipop at Cheltenham and we wouldn’t swap him,” he said.