Further cards set to fall as freeze grips Ireland but Navan hopeful for Sunday

Sunday's card at Navan appears to be Ireland's best chance of turf racing this week as the cold snap looks likely to account for fixtures at Naas, Fairyhouse and Thurles.

Temperatures dropped as low as -7C overnight on Sunday, with widespread snow, frost and freezing fog. A status orange warning is in place for most of the country, with sub-zero temperatures set to stay until the weekend.

Ireland's next jumps fixture is scheduled for Naas on Thursday, but the track is unraceable. An inspection is planned for 12pm on Wednesday.

Brendan Sheridan, clerk of the course at Naas and Fairyhouse, which is scheduled to race on Saturday, said on Monday: "Naas, at the minute, isn't raceable and it doesn't look great, with more freezing fog forecast. It's out of our hands.

"You'd imagine Fairyhouse would have a better chance but we couldn't say yet."

Navan manager Aidan McGarry is more positive about its Sunday fixture. A seven-race card last Saturday had to be cancelled due to a frozen track but McGarry said: "It's looking positive for Sunday. We can't race today but we should get a significant break on Saturday into Sunday. It's all systems go at present."

The latest update for the course on Tuesday morning described the track as unraceable, with the situation being "monitored" according to the IHRB.

Thurles is also hoping to stage its final meeting of the year on Sunday, but clerk of the course Lorcan Wyer said: "It's too early to say at the minute. I imagine we will have a much better indication tomorrow."

As of Tuesday morning, the ground at Thurles is yielding and is fit to race on this weekend, with the fences and hurdles moved on to the innermost line of the track.

Officials at Leopardstown say they have no concerns at present about any threat to the highly anticipated Christmas Festival.

The Dublin course is set to host four days of Graded action from December 26, and Leopardstown chief executive Tim Husbands says preparations are going well despite the current weather havoc.

"We have no real concerns for the festive programme at the minute," said Husbands. "Looking at the forecast, it looks set to thaw this weekend and it would have been more concerning if that wasn't the case. The staff have done a great deal of work.

"There's a limited blanket of snow on the course but it's not causing any concerns," added Husbands. "We watered the course on Friday and the ground was yielding. We're not watering at the minute with the current frost, but that's set to thaw."

Husbands added that it was too early to predict the state of the ground for the St Stephen's Day fixture.

Crowds are set to return in full to Leopardstown for the first time in three years with Covid restrictions no longer in place, and Husbands said: "Leopardstown has been an institution. People have marked this off in their diary years ahead. Judging from our ticket sales and corporate bookings, it's going to be a tremendous four days."

Read this next:

Which tracks are inspecting and how are things looking for the week?

The world's number 1 horse racing app just got better! Download the brand new Racing Post app for free to experience our new game-changing odds comparison, exclusive daily big-name tipping and unrivalled app-only content. Click here to download the latest version.