Leopardstown fully expecting Dublin Racing Festival to go ahead as planned

Storm Chandra appears to have found a worthy adversary in the shape of Leopardstown, where new CEO Mark Clayton is confident the course will be staging the highly-anticipated Dublin Racing Festival as scheduled on Saturday and Sunday.

Formally an executive director at Southwell where he was part of the team that brought City Of Troy to Nottinghamshire prior to the Breeders’ Cup, Clayton is now tasked with overseeing the invasion of British racing fans set to descend on the Foxrock venue, where ticket sales are expected to reach 35,000.

A prolonged period of wet weather in the Irish capital, including an unexpected 60mm of rain on Monday, left Leopardstown unraceable on Tuesday. However, Englishman Clayton said he had “complete optimism” the weekend’s action will not be hindered by the untimely appearance of the storm that has seen some areas of Ireland flooded.

“The storm is pretty much blowing through now and we’re confident given the forecast we will be racing both days, which is amazing given the volume of rain and I’m not sure is many tracks in Britain or Ireland that would be able to take that,” he said.

“I joked with the team when I first met them that I had been to the track numerous times over the last year and not seen any rain, well the last 12 days we’ve seen 160mm of rain and on Monday we had 60mm of rain, it’s been torrential.

“Of course we have to remain cautious, but we have no contingencies planned as given the forecast at the moment, it gives us complete optimism we will be racing both Saturday and Sunday.”

He added: “The reason we’re in this position is because of the unforecast rain we had yesterday. We were forecast to have 45mm over Monday and Tuesday, and yesterday alone we got 60mm. That is why when we walked it yesterday we were in a good state, but today is unraceable.”

Although the wet weather has attempted to dampen the build up to this year’s Dublin Racing Festival, Clayton has been buoyed by the stellar line-up standing their ground at the confirmation stage.

There will be eight Grade One races staged over the two days, with the cream of Irish racing set to lure a bumper bank holiday crowd for what continues to be one of the highlights of the National Hunt season.

Clayton added: “Ticket sales are massive and we are close to selling out on Saturday which will then tick through to Sunday. With it being a bank holiday in Ireland on Monday, people do tend to come on the Sunday and I think we will have in excess of 34,000, maybe even 35,000 people here at the weekend.

“We’re really happy with how the forfeits have gone today and how the racing is shaping up. The rematches we have in the Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Dublin Chase and even the Arkle – they are all mouthwatering. There is the prospect of some thrilling racing.”

It will be Clayton’s first Dublin Racing Festival in the Leopardstown hot seat having previously overseen the the installation of floodlights and the switch from Fibresand to Tapeta during an 11-year tenure at Southwell prior to his relocation to Ireland.

And he is hoping to welcome some old friends from his time at the Rolleston track to his new home, where Rebecca Curtis’ Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup contender Haiti Couleurs and Fergal O’Brien’s Siog Geal make up a small but select raiding party from Britain.

“I’m still really hopeful that Fergal O’Brien and Rebecca Curtis will send their runners over and that will add a little extra spice to the weekend,” continued Clayton.

“We had seven entries from Britain initially, which was the highest we’d ever had for the Dublin Racing Festival.

“The weather has gone against us slightly in that regard, but the racing will still be fantastic and there will be a huge crowd and the weather looks to be brightening up for the weekend.”

He went on: “Leopardstown is a wonderful place to work with some wonderful people and I’ve been very fortunate to come in halfway through the Christmas Festival and now the Dublin Racing Festival is my first official race meeting.

“It’s a very special meeting and time of year for Leopardstown and to be here and at the helm, I feel really honoured.”

Elsewhere, Limerick was abandoned on Tuesday, with Leicester joining Exeter in being abandoned for Wednesday.

Wincanton faces an inspection at 2.30pm on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s scheduled meeting, while Sandown will inspect at 8am Thursday to assess the prospects of Saturday’s Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase card going ahead.