Crunch time for the DRF: Irish racing's crown jewel risks becoming a damp squib

While many around him were venting about the state of the ground at the 2019 Dublin Racing Festival, Willie Mullins embraced a more phlegmatic stance by describing the unusually dry spell as "a once-in-a-lifetime weather situation".

At the time, the perennial champion insisted Leopardstown's watering policy was its own business, and Lorcan Wyer, the clerk of the course, spoke at length about the jeopardy of artificially applying water to a track in the weeks before the meeting when the forecast was for 40-50mm of rainfall followed by sub-zero temperatures.

It was an unfortunate confluence of events, leading to 22 ground-related withdrawals on the Sunday of the festival, with six of the ten declared runners coming out of the Irish Gold Cup. Good horses like Al Boum Photo, Delta Work, Monalee and Any Second Now were among the clatter of high-class late absentees.