Punchestown battle to beat weather
Officials at Punchestown are doing their utmost to beat the wet weather and stage their two-day meeting this weekend.
The course is heavy but raceable and the next 24 hours are crucial with further rain forecast.
Using fresh ground and switching races round are two of the measures being put into operation at the County Kildare venue.
“It has been a wet month, the ground is heavy. We are raceable,” said racecourse manager Richie Galway.
“We had 12 millimetres of rain on Wednesday night. We’ve had another five today and we are forecast to get up to 10 millimetres in all today.
“There is also the possibility of an additional 20 tomorrow and Saturday. The forecast for Sunday is better. It’s the next 24 hours that will tell us a lot.
“We’ve taken some measures to try to maximise our ability to race.
“We have moved the two chases from Saturday’s card. We’ve moved one into Sunday and cancelled the second one, so our Saturday seven-race programme consists of five hurdle races, one bumper and a cross-country chase. Sunday’s card is now four chases, two hurdles and one bumper race.
“We have fresh ground both days on the hurdle track. We just didn’t have that ability to do that on the chase course hence we tried to put all the chases on the one day.
“We are reviewing it on-going, it is possible we might have to call an inspection on Saturday but we are doing what we can to stage both days of the meeting.”
Willie Mullins is one of the many trainers keeping a close eye on weather updates at the track as he prepares to give Hurricane Fly’s his first run of the winter campaign in the Grade One Dobbins & Madigans at Punchestown Hurdle on Sunday.
The five-year-old is ante-post favourite for the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham after signing off last spring with an impressive victory in the Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown.
“We’re happy with him, but it will be interesting to see what they call the going after today’s rain,” said the County Carlow handler.
“We will have to see how he copes with this ground after all the rain we’ve been having, but he’s ready to run.”
