Fairyhouse confident festival will go ahead

Fairyhouse officials anticipate no problems ahead of the two-day Winter Festival meeting this weekend.

Going at the County Meath course is described as heavy, but conditions are not expected to deteriorate as the forecast is for mainly dry weather in the immediate future.

“It’s been windy, dry and sunny this afternoon and the forecast is for that over the next couple of days so we don’t have any immediate concerns,” said racecourse manager Caroline Gray.

“It would be heavy, I imagine, but we are on fresh ground both days which will help. It’s all systems go now.

“We haven’t got the weather as bad here in the east as in some other parts of the country. We’ve been very lucky as the worst of it has avoided us.”