Significant rain changes going report at Leopardstown Children have just two more sleeps before opening their Christmas presents but racing fans will have to wait an extra day before the Festive season really arrives with plenty of great action to look forward to at both Leopardstown and Limerick. Leopardstown will host seven Grade 1 races over the course of their four-day Festival meeting (December 26-29) with total prize money of over 1.1 million euro. Limerick can also boast Grade 1 action on St Stephen’s Day with the Matchbook Exchange Faugheen Novice Chase, while there is also Grade 2 and valuable handicap races at Greenmount Park over the same four days. Significant rain overnight at Leopardstown has certainly alleviated any prospect of watering for the moment. The south County Dublin venue was hit with 18mm of rain overnight (23mm in total since the last update on Monday morning) and the chase course is now yielding with the hurdle course described as yielding to soft. The inner hurdle course will be used on days three and four of the Festival meeting, and the going is currently described as soft on this part of the track. There is the potential for a further 5-10mm of rain prior to racing on Saturday with an unsettled forecast thereafter. There was a further 20mm of rain at Limerick where the going remains heavy. The forecast is mainly dry in the region over the next few days but unsettled from Saturday. The final declarations for the first two days of racing at both Leopardstown and Limerick will be released before 11am this morning.
