Last Saturday's run-of-the-mill €71,500 National Hunt card at Navan was worth only a tiny fraction of the upcoming hugely prestigious €3.7 million Champions Weekend programme but Dermot Weld believes it sets the standard for Leopardstown and the Curragh in terms of ground conditions for racing's shop-window programme.
Leopardstown began some watering yesterday and the Curragh authorities expect to have to do the same during a week that is forecast to be largely dry. That may be good news for most but not for connections of horses that don’t like fast going, something that could yet prove crucial to the complexion of Sunday’s centrepiece, the Palmerstown House Irish St Leger.
Aidan O’Brien’s Leading Light is already an odds-on favourite in some antepost betting lists but last year’s English leger hero could become a dominant figure in the €300,000 highlight should Dermot Weld’s 4 to 1 second favourite Forgotten Rules be ruled out of the equation if ground conditions get too quick.
Forgotten Rules is Weld’s standout entry for Champions Weekend but the Curragh-based trainer revealed yesterday he will have “very few runners” if the ground at both tracks is good to firm. The going at Leopardstown yesterday was good to firm on the outer track and good with good to firm places on the inner. It was also good to firm on the Curragh’s round course and good on the straight.
‘Beautiful ground’ “Hopefully all this fine weather will help get lots of people to go racing this weekend but I will have to wait and see what happens in terms of the ground. I will have very few runners if it is good to firm and if the going at the Curragh is good to firm, then Forgotten Rules won’t run,” said Weld
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“It’s up to the tracks to do a good job with watering and I hope they can do as good a job as Navan did last Saturday where it was beautiful ground, just on the fast side of good. It shows it can be done,” said Weld whose Champions Weekend team could also include the highly-rated Free Eagle who is on the comeback trail after an injury earlier in the season. “I have taken my time with some of these horses who need cut. They are doing very well but they won’t run if conditions are too fast.”
Curragh manager Paul Hensey expects to have to water at some stage this week ahead of Sunday's meeting, which hosts three of the five Champions Weekend Group One races.
“Forecast for the week is set fair, I think. We’re probably not going to get any rain, but that said, the days are getting a little bit shorter and the nights are getting colder and any moisture is holding well in the ground,” he said.
Curragh watering “I think we will definitely need to water the round course at some stage during the week. It probably won’t take an awful lot at this time of the year just to keep it right. The straight course, we will keep an eye on it. I definitely wouldn’t rule out watering but at the moment it wouldn’t require watering,” added Hensey.
The shape of the weekend cards will become clearer with today's forfeit stage where supplementary entries are still possible. Australia remains on track to headline Saturday's Qipco Irish Champion Stakes, but English trainer Roger Charlton said that last year's runner-up Al Kazeem will take his chance at Leopardstown.
Another proven Group One star on show on Saturday is likely to be Tom Hogan's Gordon Lord Byron who has emerged from his narrow defeat in the Haydock Sprint Cup in good shape. The Group Two Boomerang Stakes is on his agenda.
“He’s actually come home in brilliant form and it seems as though the race has taken nothing out of him,” said Hogan. “The slow ground probably caught him out on the day and being in front so early . . . we’ll probably let him take his chance in the Boomerang Stakes over a mile. It leaves us three weeks until the Prix de la Foret which is a nice gap.”
