The race meeting scheduled for Tramore on Tuesday has been cancelled and rescheduled to Thursday due to the threat from Storm Barra.
Brief hopes that a potential lull in the major weather event on Tuesday afternoon might allow racing proceed have been scotched and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board called off the fixture on Monday evening.
The IHRB’s clerk of the course at Tramore, Paddy Graffin, commented: “The weather forecast has got worse as the day has gone on and we are now faced with the risk of high winds and gusts which could reach up to 130km/h during race time.
“Following numerous conversations with various stakeholders today and with Met Eireann, we felt it was prudent to make an early call to postpone the fixture in the interest of safety for all participants and those who may have been planning to travel to Tramore tomorrow.
“Thanks to the cooperation of others, we are now in a position to host the meeting on Thursday and we will have a ground update before fresh declarations are made on Tuesday morning.”
Parts of the south coast have Status Red weather warnings and one of the fears about trying to race on Tuesday was a threat from high winds to high-sided vehicles such as horse boxes travelling to Tramore from various parts of the country.
In other IHRB news, trainer Philip Rothwell lost his appeal against a €2,000 fine imposed under ‘Non-Trier’ rules at Limerick last month over the running and riding of his charge Duffys Hodey in a handicap hurdle.
On Monday an appeal panel made no change to the penalties imposed by the race-day stewards and jockey Adam Short also failed to get a 10-day ban overturned.
Duffys Hodey, who finished sixth of 14 to Lake Chad, was suspended from racing for 60 days.
There was another series of ‘Non-Trier’ penalties imposed last week by a Referrals panel on the ninth horse in that same Limerick race, Strong Roots.
Strong Roots’ trainer Mark Fahey has lodged an appeal against his €6,000 fine. No date has been set for that appeal to be heard.
Strong Roots was suspended from racing for 90 days while his jockey Gavin Brouder was banned for three weeks.
