A Leopardstown spokesman yesterday said he was "very optimistic" about tomorrow's re-scheduled fixture going ahead but there is still a 7 a.m. inspection tomorrow morning.
The fixture will comprise the entire seven-race card that has been postponed since Thursday and also Istabraq's comeback race - the only contest to survive what was supposed to have been yesterday's racing.
That was called off after a morning inspection, and with almost an inch and a half of snow lying on the Foxrock track yesterday, the option of postponing to today was quickly dismissed as unrealistic.
However, the outlook for tomorrow's eight-race programme is brighter and the Leopardstown racing manager, Tom Burke, reported: "Milder weather and some rain is forecast for Saturday night and we are very optimistic about going ahead."
He added: "There's probably an inch and a half of snow on the course but a lot of grass is still showing and the ground underneath is quite good. The frost has virtually gone out of it and the snow is almost insulating the ground."
Gowran Park are equally optimistic about racing tomorrow, with no snow on the course and just a touch of frost reported yesterday. There will be a noon inspection today but the track manager Tom Carroll said that is in case the weather forecast is dramatically wrong.
However, it's a less rosy picture at Fairyhouse which was under almost six inches of snow yesterday, and there will be course inspection this morning to see if the New Year's Day meeting can go ahead.
"We had four to six inches of snow last night. It snowed, then froze, and then snowed again. We couldn't have raced today but it is supposed to get milder over the weekend. We will have to wait and see," said the Fairyhouse manager Dick Shiel.
No problems are reported for the other New Year's Day fixture at Tramore.
In Britain, today's meeting at Fontwell Park is set to survive the cold snap which has claimed the day's other scheduled jumps cards at Catterick, Cheltenham and Warwick.
David McHarg, clerk of the course at Fontwell, said: "We are okay at the moment. It got down to -3C last night which is a slight ground frost."
Cheltenham was today's first victim of the freezing conditions. And Monday's meeting at the track is already in doubt.
