THE fate of Saturday's all-star meeting at Leopardstown hinges on an early-morning inspection.

Parts of the track were unraceable on Friday morning and, with more rain forecast, the signs looked ominous when a 2.30pm inspection was scheduled.

However, following a dry morning, the inspection has been put back to 8am on Saturday.

Clerk of the course Paddy Graffin said: "We've had a look at a fresh (racing) line right out beside the chase track. In my opinion this line is fit to race. It's a line never used in the past but is currently fit to race. However, we do have the potential for a further 10-20ml [of rain]. We would like to get a bit of luck with that.

"The going is currently heavy [hurldes/bumpers], soft to heavy on the chase track. That rain is due to move in tonight and, because of that, we propose to have an 8am inspection and hopefully we get a bit of luck with the weather."

Leopardstown is due to host the two-day Dublin Racing Festival on Saturday and Sunday. The track was waterlogged in places on Tuesday but the ground recovered remarkably quickly following a dry 24 hours. By Thursday morning the chase track was officially described as yielding to soft.

However, on Friday morning the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board posted on social media that, following a further 22mm of rain in the last 24 hours - which brought the total rainfall to 193mm in 14 days - the going was now soft to heavy on the chase track while "parts of the hurdle track are unfit for racing."

The Irish Field understands there are no concerns around Sunday's racing. The weather forecast is for Saturday to "become drier as the day goes on with the rain becoming isolated and some bright or sunny intervals developing."

Sunday will see cloud and outbreaks of rain move northeastwards across the country, with dry and bright conditions following.

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