Thurles rescheduled for next Tuesday
The seven-race card was due to feature the Grade Two MacLochlainn Road Markings Ltd. Kinloch Brae Chase, in which totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup third Forget The Past was to have his first run over fences this term.
Heavy rain saw the track fall victim to waterlogging but officials acted swiftly to save the card.
Forget The Past’s trainer Michael O’Brien now plans to send his nine-year-old for the rescheduled event, for which original entries will stand. Fresh declarations will have to be made on Monday morning.
“I think they are going to reschedule for Tuesday and that being the case, he will wait for that,” said O’Brien.
“If it doesn’t go ahead next week, we don’t really have any plan for him.
“We will just have to wait and see what happens.”
Forget The Past is currently as low as 16-1 with VC Bet for the Gold Cup.
Meanwhile in Britain all of yesterday's three afternoon’s meetings were abandoned.
That included the all-weather fixture at Wolverhampton, where jockeys brought their horses back after a failed attempt to go down to the five-furlong start for the first race at 1.30pm.
Officials were left with no option but to abandon – despite having only given racing the go-ahead after a 12.45pm inspection.
Paul Hanagan, who was aboard Indian Sundance, said: “It’s bad out there. Four of us nearly got blown off.”
Acting clerk of the course Jon Pullin said: “Up until 11.30 we had blustery weather with winds in the low 30s miles per hour, but then they started to get stronger, the gusts got stronger and were 40mph plus.
“We inspected at 12.45 with jockeys and trainers and jockeys at that point were quite happy to try and race, but obviously once they went out on the track they appreciated how strong the gusts were and decided to call it a day.”
Stipendiary steward Geoff Foster said: “Jockeys felt it was dangerous to go ahead. The local weather forecast offered no prospect of things getting better.”
Ludlow abandoned around 15 minutes after their first race was due off at 1.10pm. Clerk of the course Bob Davies had conducted an impromptu inspection with trainers and jockeys at 1pm and decided to take a second look to see if conditions had improved. However, the winds failed to drop and Davies called off the meeting due to safety concerns.
Taunton clerk of the course Michael Trickey had already called a 7.30am inspection due to the overnight forecast, but the blustery weather forced his hand early in the day.
“It has been a difficult decision, but it’s not worth taking an overly-bold decision to race in case there’s an accident,” he explained.
“We felt it would be unsafe to ride in or to get horses in and out of lorries.
“We have had eight millimetres of rain in the last 24 hours, but we could have coped with that.”
No problems are anticipated at Musselburgh today, with the Scottish track set to stage the only jumps meeting of the day after Chepstow was abandoned on Wednesday due to waterlogging.
But the weather could yet cause problems for the weekend fare as Haydock have called an 8am inspection today to determine their chances of racing on Saturday, while Ascot will look an hour later.
The ground is officially heavy at both tracks, with some areas of waterlogging. Haydock clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright said: “We had 25 millimetres of rain last night and bits of the track are waterlogged so we couldn’t have raced today.
“We have a couple of days though, and if that was the last of the rain, there’s a chance it could improve.
“It is forecast to be dry by lunchtime and to stay that way.
“We do have some strong winds which could help so there is a chance.”
Ascot counterpart Chris Stickels added: “We have had storms overnight and we have had about eight millimetres so far today following on from the rain yesterday.
“It’s still raining at the moment and the ground is heavy and waterlogged in places. The forecast is for it to clear up later today and a minimal amount of rain tomorrow and then the forecast is for three to four millimetres on Saturday.
“Ideally, we need it to be dry until Saturday really and it is very marginal.”
