Leopardstown, Limerick and Down Royal all set for Christmas fixtures The weather and ground conditions look set fair for the three meetings on St Stephen’s Day with positive updates from Leopardstown, Limerick and Down Royal this morning. Leopardstown and Limerick both host their traditional four-day Festivals from December 26 to 29 while northern racegoers are also catered for at Down Royal on December 26. The going remains generally unchanged at all three tracks after some rain in the past few days. Leopardstown Clerk of the Course Lorcan Wyer said this morning: “We had 5mm of rain over the weekend and it was blustery and cold. It’s getting milder this week and more settled, generally dry for racing throughout the week. “The going remains the same. It is good to yielding, yielding in places, on the chase course and yielding, good to yielding in places, on the hurdle course. “Because of the mild and dry forecast, we are doing a little bit of selective watering on the chase track just to keep that moisture in it. There might be a little bit of light rain today, maybe 2mm to 3mm max this afternoon. “We will again have four hurdles in the back straight just in case sun is an issue particularly in the home straight. “Overall we are very happy with the racecourse — it walks very nice ground and is a credit to the team. We started a programme of watering from late summer into the autumn and combined that with in excess of 250mm of rain since the start of September. “It has left us in a good place ahead of this Christmas Festival.” Limerick Clerk of the Course Paul Moloney said, “We’ve had 8mm of rain in the last 48 hours and we are forecast another 4 to 5mm later this morning. Met Eireann are saying it will be mainly dry for the rest of the week. “The going here this morning is yielding to soft, soft in places, on both tracks.” Down Royal Clerk of the Course Brian Hamilton said, “The ground is currently good to yielding, yielding in places. “We’ve had 10mm of rain since the entry stage. There is another 3 or 4mm forecast so hopefully it will stay good to yielding.”
