SATURDAY’S fixture at Gowran Park is subject to an early morning precautionary inspection and officials are “monitoring” Punchestown ahead of Sunday’s card there, as Irish racing continues to tip-toe through the cold and wet start to 2026.

While there have been numerous cancellations due to waterlogging in recent weeks, no meeting has been lost to the calendar, says Horse Racing Ireland [HRI].

HRI’s director of racing Jonathan Mullin said: “There have been plenty of rescheduled meetings and contingencies, but we haven’t actually lost a meeting in Ireland yet in 2026.

“Naas, Fairyhouse (twice), Limerick and Leopardstown have all had meetings cancelled and subsequently rescheduled. Clonmel lost their fixture this week but that has been rescheduled for next Friday, February 20th. Punchestown kindly facilitated the Dublin Racing Festival contingency when moving off the bank holiday.

“Undoubtedly the quantity of rain, particularly in the east of the country, has been very challenging for tracks, and in many of the fixtures that have gone ahead it has taken a Herculean effort by the ground staff to make it happen.”

Mullin said that the intention when rescheduling is to try to save all races as quickly as possible, or to add additional races to other meetings to compensate if required. The Grade 3 novice hurdle on last Thursday’s cancelled Clonmel card has been moved to Gowran Park today.

“The race programmes may need to be tweaked if the rescheduled date falls too close to similar existing opportunities. The IRTA is consulted on the programme when fixtures are rescheduled and require fresh entries.”

Asked to describe the typical procedure when trying to reschedule, Mullin said: “HRI’s race planning manager Andrew Finnegan will first try to establish the next available date a racecourse feels it can race.

“Once that date has been established, he consults with the various staffing groups – internally in HRI, the IHRB and IRIS – as well as with our media rights aggregators, SIS, to ensure the date can be supported from a staffing perspective. The flexibility shown by them all over the past few weeks has been exceptional.

“The proposal is then put forward to the HRI Fixtures & Programmes Committee for approval. Once approved, race times are discussed with the BHA to ensure clashes can be minimised.

“Tom Byrne and his team in the BHA were extremely helpful around optimal race times for Dublin Racing Festival contingencies. As well as those times assisting with terrestrial broadcast coverage on RTE, keeping the same times for the opening day of the Dublin Racing Festival which ended up on the bank holiday Monday, meant that Leopardstown did not have to pulp all of the racecards and could reuse them.”

Weekend prospects

Paddy Graffin, clerk of the course, said on Friday afternoon: “The going remains heavy on both tracks. However, we have a frosty forecast and, because of that, we will have a precautionary inspection at 8am. Temperatures are set to rise in the morning and we have a late start (12.45pm) so we are hopeful racing will go ahead.”

Punchestown is due to host its Grand National Trial fixture on Sunday. The ground was described as heavy on Friday morning. There is a possibility of a further 8mm of rain on Saturday evening and the situation is being monitored.

There could be concerns over Fairyhouse on Monday. The ground is already heavy there and there could be between 12-25mm of rain on Saturday.

The north Co Dublin/Meath area has had plenty of rain this week, forcing the cancellation of today’s Ward Union point-to-point at Oldtown. That meeting moves to next Saturday, February 21st and entries stand. The point-to-points at Knockanard and Nenagh on Sunday still go ahead.

Today’s high-quality jumping fixtures at Haydock and Wincanton are subject to 8am inspections due to the threat of frost, but officials at Ascot seem confident that their Grade 1 card will survive the dip in temperature as no inspection has been called there.