Leopardstown confident of suitable ground for next weekend's Dublin Racing Festival

Leopardstown has pledged to have safe winter ground for next weekend’s highly anticipated Dublin Racing Festival.

Trainers have raised concerns about the ground at the DRF in recent years but racing operations manager Jane Hedley is confident there will be no issues for the track's showpiece jumps meeting.

She said: “We’re in a nice place at the moment. We're soft on the hurdles track and yielding, good to yielding in places on the chase course. We're aiming to keep it around that level for next weekend.”

A dry week is forecast and watering commenced on Saturday.

Hedley added: “We obviously have a dry forecast so in order to keep the ground the way it is, we began watering on Saturday before next weekend and we put 12mm on the chase course. We'll then review on Monday and make a plan for the week.”

In 2019 there were 22 ground-related withdrawals on the Sunday of the DRF, with only four horses going to post for the Irish Gold Cup, and the following year Gordon Elliott was left displeased after withdrawing Sire Du Berlais from the Ladbrokes Hurdle, saying it was “not good enough”.

Willie Mullins elected not to run two-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Al Boum Photo at the meeting 12 months ago, saying: "They don't have the ground for those sorts of horses. All chasers need a good cut. I think they do anyway. If you want to go summer racing, that's fine.”

There was a paucity of British-trained entries again this year but Top Ville Ben, Sceau Royal and Weveallbeencaught are all in contention to cross the Irish Sea.

Hedley said: “We’ve had contact from all three yards regarding the British entries and it's possible they could all run. We'll be delighted to see some British runners and we hope more will come in the future. We appreciate it’s a big undertaking to travel over, but we do everything we can to support them and we love to see them.”

Leopardstown is expecting a good crowd for the meeting.

“We're delighted with ticket sales and we're sold out in hospitality," said Hedley. "We’ve got a lot of interest from Britain and the weather is looking settled at this point, so it’s all set to be a bumper weekend.”

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