Yielding ground anticipated for day one of Dublin Racing Festival

PA Sport Reporters
February 3, 2022 4:19 pm

Watering has been ongoing at Leopardstown in recent weeks.

Leopardstown’s Dublin Racing Festival is likely to get under way on yielding ground, with the possibility of rain before the second day on Sunday.

There has been much talk in the lead up to the meeting regarding the going at the track, with the fixture blighted by quick conditions on more than one occasion.

However, despite an incredibly dry month, clerk of the course Lorcan Wyer has ensured the ground has some give.

“The going is yielding on both tracks and the fence positions are the same as they were for Christmas,” Wyer said in a video posted on Twitter.

“The rail alignment on the chase track is a slighter wider line which is reflected in the advertised distances, it’s a slightly longer chase track.

“We’ll have fresh ground on the hurdles track for day two.

“The forecast is for the possibility of three millimetres of rain tonight (Thursday), dry Friday with the possibility of another 5mm of rain in the early hours of Sunday morning – it looks quite a wet start on Sunday.

“We are watering, that’s ongoing. January has been such a dry month. We’ve had 3-4mm of rain in January, so we’ve been watering since January 10 and doing it three days a week since then which has left us with yielding ground ahead of the weekend.”