Heavy downpours force Curragh to abandon Sunday’s racing action

Sunday’s meeting at the Curragh has failed to survive an early morning inspection with racing abandoned due to areas of waterlogging at the track.

Racing went ahead at the Kildare venue on Saturday with Savethelastdance’s Irish Oaks win the highlight, but persistent heavy rainfall began midway through the card and continued throughout the evening which brought about Sunday morning’s 7.30am check on conditions.

The highlight of Sunday’s card was set to be the Group Two Romanised Minstrel Stakes where Joseph O’Brien’s Jumbly and Dermot Weld’s Irish 1,000 Guineas fourth Tarawa were disputing favouritism, but with areas of the track found to be unfit for racing and further rain forecast, officials were left with no option but to abandon the meeting.

Brendan Sheridan, IHRB clerk of the course said: “We have had 23mm of rain since around 4pm yesterday and parts of the track are waterlogged and unfit for racing.

“It is currently still raining and having spoken with Met Éireann this morning they are forecasting a further 5-10mm of rain today so unfortunately, we have been left with no option but to cancel the fixture today.”

Heavy rainfall has also seen the abandonment of Sunday’s Flat action at Redcar, with the track failing to pass an 8am precautionary inspection.

A tweet from the racecourse’s twitter account said: “Unfortunately today’s race meeting has been abandoned due to significant rainfall overnight and more expected today."