Leopardstown switches Dublin festival race times in bid to beat the big freeze

Leopardstown has taken extra precautions to protect this weekend's Grade 1 extravaganza from the threat of frost, moving Saturday's three chases – including Min's potential clash with Footpad in the Dublin Chase – to the end of the seven-race card.

The wave of frost has decimated British jumps cards this week but, while officials at Leopardstown are confident of beating the freeze, the course has made every effort to survive the wintry weather with the decision to reschedule made in case the frost forecast for Friday proves sharper than predicted.

The reshuffle means racing fans will not have to wait as long to see Apple's Jade with the Irish Champion Hurdle, the day-one highlight of the second edition of the Dublin Racing Festival, a meeting featuring eight Grade 1s and in excess of €1.8 million in prize-money, brought forward to accommodate the move.

Speaking on Thursday afternoon, Leopardstown chief executive Pat Keogh explained: “We’ve had no frost this week. The course is in very good condition – it has been perfectly raceable all week – and we're not expecting any frost tonight.

“However, frost is forecast for Friday night with temperatures dropping to -2 or 3C and we’ve amended Saturday’s running order as a precaution just in case it happens to get a few degrees colder.

Pat Keogh: 'The racecourse will be divided in two between owners, trainers and industry personnel on one side and the general public on the other.'Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

“Deciding to run the three chases as the last three races on the card is a precaution – it will give us extra time for any frost there might be to come out of the ground on the chase course.

“We’re expecting Saturday to be sunny with temperatures of 3 or 4C, so we shouldn’t have an issue and we’re all set for the two-day festival – one of our most important fixtures of the year."

Sandown's feature meeting on Saturday remains in the balance with the course proving unraceable on Thursday.

There was no jumps racing in Britain on Wednesday and Thursday, a situation replicated on Friday with cards at Catterick and Chepstow cancelled, and Musselburgh's two-day weekend meeting has also been called off owing to the wintry conditions.

Sandown card remains in the balance as threat of more frost loomsCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

Despite the testing conditions, clerk of the course Andrew Cooper has not given up hope of saving Saturday's valuable card, which features the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Chase.

Speaking on Thursday afternoon, Cooper said: "It's been a gradual improvement all day as temperatures have picked up from last night. We're touching about 4C now and that's as high as we're going to get. All the whiteness of the frost has gone, although there's a legacy of some degree of frost still in the ground.

Part of the track will not be covered on Thursday night in the hope the forecast snow moisture could aid a thaw.

"We're not lifting all of the covers, but we're lifting the covers on the shaded area in front of the stands, which is one of the areas where the degree of frost got through the covers.

"We reckon we have a protection up to about -4C, beyond that the covers don't give you protection.

"We're opening up that section of the course to receive tonight's snow, which in terms of quantities is forecast to only be about one or two centimetres.

"What we didn't want was to have heavier snowfall on covers, which makes them very heavy and difficult to shift and move, and would have kept in any frozen ground underneath the covers for a longer period. We've decided to lift them this afternoon and let the natural snow moisture hopefully assist – strangely enough – in a thaw.

Cooper had tweeted earlier on Thursday stating the course faced a challenge but was not a lost cause, and added: "Things have improved through the day, you'd be much closer to racing now than you would have at any time during today.

"We've got to take stock of what this snow amounts to, which we'll do on Friday morning. We're not expecting much, if anything, of a frost on the back of the snow, temperatures are meant to get down to around zero.

"We have another sharpish frost to cope with on Friday night into Saturday – that could be a minus two, which would hopefully be a manageable temperature. It might mean we put the covers we've taken off today back down tomorrow."

Wetherby will inspect at 8am on Friday morning, with the prospects of Saturday's card going ahead looking unlikely.

Clerk of the course Jonjo Sanderson said on Thursday afternoon: "We haven't got above about -2 or -3C today. We're surrounded in fog and have been the whole day, there's hardly a breath of wind and you've barely been able to see the course all day long.

"The reality is that unless there's a complete change in the weather forecast, there's going to be no improvement in the course overnight so nothing will be any different at 8am."

Lingfield also hold an inspection at 8am on Friday for its all-weather meeting in the afternoon.

Weather prospects

Friday
CatterickAbandoned
Chepstow Abandoned
Wolverhampton (AW)Standard
Lingfield (AW)Standard; inspection 8am
Newcastle (AW)Standard
Dundalk (AW)Standard

Saturday
Lingfield (AW) Standard
Chelmsford (AW)Standard
MusselburghAbandoned
SandownChase course: Good to Soft, Good in places. Hurdle course: Soft, Good to Soft in places. Both courses currently frozen in places. Cold and frosty outlook with potential for snow.
WetherbyInspection 8am Friday morning. Track currently frozen in places after low of -6C on Wednesday night, with another cold night forecast.
LeopardstownHurdle course: Good to Yielding. Chase course: Good. Rain and sleet clearing on Thursday night and should be dry for the rest of the week and into the weekend. Temperatures remaining cold up to and including the weekend with frost at night.
Kempton (AW)Standard to Slow.

Sunday
LeopardstownSame as Saturday. Hurdle course: Good to Yielding.
Chase course: Good.
MusselburghAbandoned
Southwell (AW)Standard to Slow

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