Haydock ground set to be on easy side for Sprint Cup day despite dry week in store

Haydock clerk of the course Daniel Cooper believes ground on the soft side of good is likely for the track’s marquee Sprint Cup day on Saturday.

The Merseyside track has seen a deal of wet weather since its last fixture on August 10, although a large proportion of that has come in the last week.

The going description improved slightly on Wednesday morning to good to soft (from good to soft, soft in places).

“The Rose of Lancaster day was our last fixture on the big Saturday course and the weather since then has been largely unsettled and wet,” Cooper said. “We’ve since had 20mm over the last seven days or so, nine of which came on Sunday and eight of which on Monday."

On how the weather looks ahead of the three-day meeting starting on Thursday, he added: “The outlook looks largely calm and dry now. The forecasts have pretty much all settled down and they are now all agreeing that it’s going to be a largely dry week with sunny spells and slightly warmer temperatures.

“There was a bit of uncertainty as to what the end of the week would look like as the forecasts have been very mixed. 

“We had a mixture of all sorts really from quite high quantities of rain to completely dry.”

The last three runnings of the 6f Group 1 contest have been on good ground or better, but it is unlikely Saturday’s race will continue that trend.

“We have started the week on the good to soft mark, but on Thursday or Friday, we might introduce good into the description,” said Cooper. “Good to soft, good in places is a real possibility at the end of the week into Saturday. 

“It’s possibly a big ask to be good all over at this stage as it feels quite slow. We’re 6.0 on the GoingStick, which is quite slow for Haydock.”

Inisherin: ante-post favourite should have no issues with the groundCredit: John Grossick

Those predicted conditions should be no problem for Inisherin, who won the Sandy Lane Stakes over course and distance on soft ground.

“When he ran at Haydock before Ascot I was concerned that it might be too soft for him, but he handled it really well,” trainer Kevin Ryan said. “He then went to Ascot with the completely opposite ground and he handled that just the same.

“I have no concern with the ground going into Haydock. He might just be a little unique in the fact that he can handle fast ground and softer conditions.”

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