Horse Racing: Rain Destroys Saturday's Race Card With Irish Champion Stakes Postponed

Severe weather conditions in Britain and Ireland have forced the postponement of most Saturday's racing schedule, including the meeting at Leopardstown which was due to feature the much-anticipated race between Duke of Marmalade and New Approach in the Irish Champion Stakes. The meeting at Haydock, which was due to feature the Group One Betfred Sprint Cup, was also abandoned.

Four of today's six meetings have been called off due to waterlogging, although the Leopardstown fixture has been postponed until tomorrow. The eight-race card will now be contested at the Dublin track on Sunday, subject to a morning inspection. The standout fixture is the absorbing rematch between the Derby winner New Approach and the brilliant Duke Of Marmalade.

"We nearly made it over the line today but we've had to call off the meeting," said the Leopardstown general manager Tom Burke. "We had over 6mm of rain last night, but the forecast is not too bad and the rain should have cleared by mid-morning. We have called a precautionary inspection, but we would be optimistic at this stage."

The situation was far more extreme at Haydock, however, with officials having moved forward their intended 7am inspection. The clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright said: "We have had 35mm of rain inside the last 24 hours, including two heavy cloud-bursts during the night. We got here early this morning and it was obvious that it was a lost cause."

Thirsk's meeting was abandoned on Friday, with their executive set to stage a 3pm inspection to determine the prospects for racing on Sunday. It was a similarly grim story at Stratford, who called off the day's racing following a 7am inspection. "The rain we had last night has taken us to the wire," said the clerk of the course Stephen Lambert. "Although we could have struggled on, another 5mm of rain this morning and we'd have been stuffed. The forecast is not good at all - that was a factor behind us pulling the plug."

Only Kempton and Wolverhampton's all-weather meetings survived Saturday's wash-out and heavy rain has also already led to the abandonment of Worcester's meeting on Sunday. The acting clerk of the course Roderick Duncan delivered the bad news following an impromptu inspection this morning. "We have had 31mm of rain over the last 24 hours and things are not good," Duncan said. "The river (River Severn) has come up and is only a few inches away from flooding (the track)."

Monday's fixture at Newcastle has been called off after Gosforth Park was hit by over 60mm of rainfall. "I'm afraid it was an easy decision to make from our point of view," said the clerk of the course James Armstrong. "The way it's going, we could easily have upwards of another 80mm of rain. I've not seen anything like this for a long time."

There will no racing at Chepstow next Thursday, with officials at the Monmouthshire track having made an early call on Friday. Northern Racing, owners of Chepstow, confirmed the meeting would instead be transferred to Brighton.