Weather Prospects:The Leopardstown authorities are confident the snow which is forecast to cover much of Leinster today will not be a threat to Saturday's prestigious Hennessy Gold Cup fixture.

Instead of snow, it is expected that the south Co Dublin track will get more sleet and rain and that most of that will disappear before the day is over.

"The indications I'm getting are that the risk of snow is reasonably low, and even if we get some, it will disappear quickly," said the Leopardstown manager Tom Burke yesterday.

The going at Leopardstown has improved to an official verdict of "yielding" with some yielding to soft patches. "We are being told that rain is coming into the Dublin area in the early hours and while it could fall as snow for a while, it is more likely to be sleety rain. The Met Office are telling us it should be gone by the afternoon and Friday looks like being mainly dry," Burke added.

Currently there are no problems expected with today's Clonmel meeting going ahead with the south of the country expected to escape the worst of any bad weather.

"They are not going to call an inspection on a forecast anyway. So if a problem arises, it will be dealt with in the morning," said a Turf Club spokesman.

However, today's scheduled meeting at Huntingdon was abandoned due to a frozen track. Officials inspected the track yesterday but it was frozen, with the prospect of another sub-zero night on the way. "We've had to abandon I'm afraid, due to frost," said clerk of the course Fiona Needham.

n JP McManus's Far From Trouble has been installed as co-favourite for the Aintree Grand National after his facile win at Down Royal yesterday. However, connections are currently favouring the Irish equivalent on April 9th. Frank Berry, racing manager to McManus, said: "He'll probably firstly go for the William Hill Handicap Chase at Cheltenham. But at the moment, the Irish (National) is preferred as he's only eight, and probably a bit young to take on the Aintree fences."