Hopes of early resumption dashed

HOPES of an early resumption of racing in Ireland at Thurles on Thursday and Friday were dashed yesterday afternoon when both the hurdle and chase tracks were found to be unfit for racing.

Explaining the situation, Thurles manager, Pierce Molony, reported: “It was 3 degrees here this morning, but that had gone down to zero by noon.

“The wind was from the south-east, it was bitterly cold and the rain which came was of no help.

“As a result the chase track is still completely frozen, while parts of the hurdle track remain frozen. We were left with no option but to cancel the meetings which were scheduled for both Thursday and Friday.”

Molony, however, has indicated to HRI his desire to race on Saturday and on either Sunday or Monday as well.

“We want to run Thursday’s programme on Saturday, which consists of five hurdle races and a bumper”, said Molony.

“I know we could clash with Naas, but Tom Ryan (Naas manager) says he has no objection to that.

“Friday’s card had six chases and we want to hold that on Sunday or Monday. It won’t happen on Sunday should Fairyhouse and Cork race.

“But if Cork is off we could race with Fairyhouse. If Cork is on, and Fairyhouse off, then it wouldn’t be fair for us to go head-to-head with them and we would wait until Monday.”

A decision regarding Thurles is likely to be made by HRI today.

Meanwhile, the prospects of the green light being given at Naas are described by Tom Ryan as “50-50”.

Said Ryan: “The vast majority of the snow is gone, but it is raining here now and flooding and lying water is the worry.

“It’s a 50-50 call at the moment, but we have next Tuesday on standby with HRI if we fail to race on Saturday.”

Fairyhouse was finally free of snow yesterday, but the track was still unraceable.

General manager, Caroline Gray, said: “We were originally told to expect an inch of rain, but that has been revised downwards to between ten and fifteen millimetres and a lot will depend on how much we get.”