LEOPARDSTOWN:A 7.30 inspection this morning could decide if Sunday's Hennessy Gold Cup meeting goes ahead although it is looking like even Leopardstown's famous powers of recovery might not be enough to save the prestige fixture .
A course spokesman last evening admitted they were in “severe difficulties” as a couple of hours of fresh snow fell on the track which had earlier failed a lunchtime inspection.
The Leopardstown authorities are already discussing a contingency plan if Sunday’s action cannot go ahead with the triple Grade One card likely to be re-scheduled to next week.
A move to Sunday week is apparently the favourite option as the currently scheduled action for that day is in another Horse Racing Ireland-owned course at Navan.
“We have had up to two-and-a- half hours of snow this afternoon which has changed things. It doesn’t look too good now,” said the Leopardstown manager Tom Burke yesterday evening. “It looks like we are in severe difficulties but we will see how things shape up in the morning.”
That bulletin dampened earlier hopes which had risen yesterday morning when the Co Dublin course had remarkably become almost raceable overnight after having been waterlogged on Wednesday due to almost two inches of rain.
“What we’re hoping for is that there might be the same type of improvement as there was this morning. There was huge improvement and we were getting very close to being raceable. But then the snow came again,” Burke said.
A glimmer of encouragement could come in the weather forecast as although overnight temperatures are set to plummet, there is also expected to be a break from the snow showers that have dogged the course this week.
Burke didn’t rule out further inspections if there is any encouragement for the Turf Club team looking at the track this morning, although that could put the connections of the four possible British-trained Hennessy contenders in a quandary.
The two big race favourites, Neptune Collonges and Exotic Dancer, as well as last year’s winner The Listener and Air Force One, were due to travel to Ireland last night.
However, their trainers have decided to hold off on travelling the horses until receiving news of this morning’s inspection. Final declarations for the meeting, which also includes the Grade One Deloitte Novice Hurdle and the Grade One Dr PJ Moriarty Novice Chase, have to be made this morning.
This weekend’s other Irish card at Naas tomorrow was cancelled yesterday due to the continual problems with snow in the eastern part of the country. “There was no way they could race so they’ve decided now to pull the plug,” said a Turf Club spokesman. “They had a good bit of snow overnight and they’ve been waterlogged.”
In other news the former Grade One winning hurdler Silent Oscar has been ruled out for the rest of the season due to a recurrence of a tendon problem.
The 2007 Punchestown Champion Hurdle winner was due to return from a long lay-off in last month’s Toshiba Irish Champion Hurdle but missed out on the race.
“He had some slight heat in a tendon on the weekend of the race so we decided to stop then, give him a year off and see how he is,” trainer Harry Rogers said yesterday. “Hopefully we will get him back as it is very minor what he has. We will leave him alone until next January and see,” he added.
