SATURDAY’S Fairyhouse meeting has been postponed until Tuesday due to health and safety concerns posed by expected high winds on Saturday afternoon.

The decison to postpone was taken shortly after 8am on Saturday following discussions between racecourse officials and Met Eireann.

A statement issued by the track said: "Following an early morning decision between Fairyhouse, Turf Club Executives, and Met Eireann, the Fairyhouse meeting today has been cancelled for health and safety reasons due to strong winds forecast for the afternoon.

"Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) has announced that this meeting will now be held at Fairyhouse on Tuesday, October 24th. The same programme of races (Meeting No 295) will apply with fresh declarations to run to be made by 10am on Monday, October 23rd. The time of the first race will be at 1.45pm."

Prospects are much better for Sunday’s flat meeting at Leopardstown. The track’s CEO Pat Keogh reported: “We’re expecting plenty of rain on Saturday but we may be lucky and have dry conditions during racing on Sunday.”

Thankfully there was no scheduled Irish racing last Monday when ex-Hurricane Ophelia moved through the country. Cork was one of the counties worst affected and Mallow trainer Eugene O’Sullivan saw considerable damage done to his property.

“There was no hassle with the horses but we lost about 50 trees, which was awful. Slates came off three old stables and a galvanized roof on a cattle shed was blown away. We seem to have got the brunt of the storm here.”

Andrew Hogan, manager of both Cork and Tipperary Racecourses, said both tracks lost a few trees each.

“Some signs and running rail was knocked down but there was no structural damage.”