Leopardstown 'highly unlikely' to water ahead of Christmas Festival

Leopardstown is "highly unlikely" to water unless a forecast ten millimetres of rain does not arrive on Sunday ahead of its four-day Christmas Festival starting on Tuesday.

The track's racing and operations manager Jane Hedley said the going on Thursday was predominantly soft on the hurdles track and yielding on the chase course. The track is anticipating a vital bout of rain on Sunday which will dictate whether it will water.

Hedley said: "We're in a really good place. We've had well above-average rainfall this year – we're up to about 950 millimetres where the average is around 730 millimetres. It was in a lovely place to take the autumn rain and we're currently largely soft on the hurdles track and yielding on the chase track.

"We're overcast with blustery showers through today until Saturday and there's a chance of some more organised rain on Sunday. We're looking at between eight to ten millimetres on Sunday which would be nice timing to freshen it up ahead of next week.

"It's highly unlikely at this point we'll water if the forecast is correct. If that rain on Sunday disappears then we might look at doing a little bit on the back straight, but at the moment it doesn't look like we'll need to."

Trainers have raised concerns about the ground at Leopardstown in recent years, particularly for the Dublin Racing Festival where, in 2019, there were 22 ground-related withdrawals on the Sunday with only four horses going to post for the Irish Gold Cup.

Conditions at Limerick remain soft, soft to heavy ahead of its four-day Christmas meeting starting on Tuesday. Racecourse manager Tom Rudd said: "We're soft, soft to heavy in places on all tracks following three millimetres in the last 48 hours. The forecast remains unsettled with possibility of 15 to 20 millimetres prior to racing."

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