LEOPARDSTOWN GETS GREEN LIGHT Today`s meeting at Leopardstown has been given the go-ahead after an early-morning inspection found the course to be in raceable condition. The going is heavy. Leading contenders for both the Champion Hurdle and Cheltenham Gold Cup will be in action at the meeting, put back since cards on Thursday and Friday were abandoned. After frost and snow put paid to the last two days of the Dublin track`s Christmas meeting, officials decided to stage Thursday`s Ericsson Chase card today with Friday`s AIB Agri-Business December Festival Hurdle added. So proceedings are due to open with three-times champion Istabraq in the big hurdle - which he has won three times before. The eight-year-old is having his first run of a season which trainer Aidan O`Brien is gearing entirely around a bid to land an unprecedented fourth win in the Champion at Cheltenham - for which he is odds-on favourite ante-post. Racing also takes place at Gowran Park where the going is soft.
