Following an inspection on Wednesday morning, Punchestown was found to be fit for racing and the fixture scheduled for this afternoon goes ahead. The first race is due off at 1.40pm.

Brendan Sheridan, IHRB clerk of the course, said: “Following our inspection this morning, I’m pleased to report that Punchestown is fit for racing and the fixture scheduled for today goes ahead.

“We had a dry day yesterday and a dry, windy night last night with no rain developing yet. We have fresh ground for today and the ground has come back a bit to soft, soft to heavy in places.

“According to Met Éireann this morning, there is the possibility of 5-10mm of rain here through today and it is set to be a breezy day.“

Clonmel doubt

Following a further 5mm of rain since entries closed on Monday, parts of the track at Clonmel remain unfit for racing due to waterlogging. There will be a 10am inspection on Thursday morning ahead of the fixture scheduled to take place on Friday.

IHRB clerk of the course Paul Moloney said: “Unfortunately we remain unfit for racing here at Clonmel as parts of the track are still waterlogged.

“We had 18mm of rain over the weekend and a further 5mm of rain since entries for this meeting closed on Monday.

“The Status Yellow rain warning for Tipperary is in place until 11pm tonight and we could get up to another 10mm of rain today according to Met Éireann.

“Due to the current conditions and the latest weather forecast we will have an inspection at 10am on Thursday morning.”