CONDITIONS should be mainly dry for racing over Christmas.

Despite a very wet day on Sunday, Leopardstown was officially yielding on the hurdles course and “good, good to yielding in places” on the chase course when declarations for St Stephen’s Day were revealed. Met Eireann is predicting no worse than patchy drizzle over the coming days.

Racecourse chief executive Pat Keogh said: “We had 13mm of rain on Saturday night which did us good,” Keogh explained. “I can’t imagine the ground being much different that what we have now.

“It’s been a tough year for trainers, not being able to get horses on to grass. A lot of trainers will come on St Stephen’s Day morning and have a look.

“We’re encouraging anyone who would like to, to come up and have a look at the track now.

“We have the track as good as we possibly could get it. It’s lovely, fresh ground that hasn’t been used since the end of the National Hunt season. I’d be very hopeful about some of the big names turning up.”

Conditions are set to be slightly more testing at Limerick, where some 12mm of rain on Saturday night left the ground soft on the chase course and “soft to heavy, heavy in places” on the hurdles track. General manager Patrick O’Callaghan said: “We’re probably still a little quicker than usual but softer than Leopardstown,”

The Matchbook Betting Exchange Novice Chase, registered as the Greenmount Chase, will be run as a Grade 1 for the first time at the Munster course on St Stephen’s Day, and has attracted an excellent field, with Ruby Walsh opting to head Shannonside to ride favourite Getabird, instead of riding at Leopardstown.

“We’re delighted with the field for the race,” O’Callaghan said. “With Ruby coming down and the calibre of horses around, it definetely creates a lot more buzz and drums up interest.

“I suppose, given we have softer ground, it might work in our favour to attract a few of the big name horses throughout the week. We’ll see how it pans out.

“The best thing to report is that our sales are very strong. We have sold out all corporate hospitality for St Stephen’s Day and we only have limited availability for the rest of the week. We’ve also seen a huge increase in general admission tickets online which is interesting.”

FINAL MEETING

The ground at Down Royal is yielding for their St Stephen’s Day fixture, which will be the last under the current management.

In Britain, Kempton was described as good to soft on Sunday with further rain expected on Christmas Eve ahead of the King George VI Chase on St Stephen’s Day. Soft ground is likely at Chepstow a day later for the Welsh Grand National.