Leopardstown to start selective watering next week with dry weather forecast

Leopardstown will commence selective watering on its chase course next week in the build-up to the Dublin Racing Festival, with the track officials confident the course is in a good position before the two-day bonanza.

Drying ground at last year's meeting, officially described as good, good to firm in places by the time of the Irish Gold Cup on day two, led to six horses being withdrawn from the Grade 1 highlight, leaving a disappointing field of just four runners.

Leading trainers Noel Meade and Willie Mullins this month spoke in favour of watering if necessary before the 2020 showpiece, which begins on Saturday, February 1, especially in light of Leopardstown's recent Christmas festival when conditions dried to good on the chase course by day four.

Speaking on Saturday, Leopardstown operations manager David Attwood said: "We'll be starting selective watering on just the chase track this week.

"It's yielding at the moment but we can see the dry forecast over the coming week – and possibly into the following week – so we're just going to keep it ticking along with bits here and there to make sure we're okay.

Bellshill and Road To Respect fought out the finish to last year's four-runner Irish Gold CupCredit: Caroline Norris (racingpost.com/photos)

"It's just the chase track because the hurdles track is fine, it's soft and has had some watering through the summer with the Flat track."

He added: "Two weeks out, we're happy that we're firmly in the box seat with it."

There were a total of 26 non-runners on the second day of last year's festival due to unsuitable conditions, but Attwood says the current ground situation at the Dublin venue is much different to 12 months ago.

He explained: "We were coming into a completely different scenario last year when we had a very dry summer and very dry winter.

"It's been a lot different this year and we've had some rain – the last Flat meeting here in October was really wet and it had rained leading up to Christmas. We've had an inch or so of rain in the last week."

He added: "There's a good level of moisture in there but we're just keeping it ticking along next week. It's the first time we've really been able to get water on to the track because we've had to do track maintenance to let the course heal after Christmas."

Jack Kennedy: enjoyed a highly successful Christmas periodCredit: Patrick McCann

Leading jockey Jack Kennedy is confident he will be back in time for the Leopardstown gala, worth €2.1 million in prize-money, after having a procedure on Wednesday to remove a plate inserted from a previous collarbone injury.

The Kerry native, who enjoyed a Christmas to remember with top-level wins aboard Delta Work, Apple's Jade and Abacadabras, explained: "A scar on my shoulder got infected after the metal in my collarbone was rejected.

"I had the procedure done on it on Wednesday and it's a matter of letting the scar ease, waiting for it to heal."

He added: "It's not something that had been bothering me when I was riding but it had to be sorted. All going well I'll be back in time for the Dublin Racing festival."

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