Leopardstown Rescheduled for Saturday 23rd  January 2010

2-day MCR Hurdle & Toshiba Champion Hurdle Meeting

-23rd & 24th January 2010-

Horse Racing Ireland has announced that the Leopardstown Meeting which was scheduled for Sunday 10th January featuring the MCR Hurdle but was cancelled due to snow will now be held on Saturday 23rd January 2010 with live coverage on RTE Television.

With Leopardstown now being held on Saturday 23rd January, the Navan meeting, which was originally scheduled for this date, will transfer to Wednesday 27th January. This meeting will close for entries by 12 noon on Thursday 21st January with declarations to run to be made by 10am on Tuesday 26th January.

Leopardstown now stages a top-class weekend of National Hunt racing with the feature race on Saturday’s card being the MCR Hurdle supported by the Grade 2 MCR Novice Chase. The feature on the Sunday 24th January card will be the Toshiba Irish Champion Hurdle supported by the Grade 1 Arkle Chase.

Leopardstown will offer free admission to all Navan members at the Saturday meeting.

Michael O’Rourke, Chief Executive of HRI Racecourses, welcomed the news: - "It is wonderful that we have secured a new date for the MCR Hurdle Raceday which promises to be a very competitive and interesting card. I would like to thank the Management at Navan racecourse for their co-operation in changing dates and we are also grateful to our sponsors for their assistance in facilitating these moves. RTE, as usual, have been most supportive in ensuring that these races will be brought to a wider sporting audience through live coverage of both days’ racing."

The MCR Hurdle will be re-opened for entries along with the rest of the meeting by 12 noon on Monday 18th January. The full programme of races for this fixture will be published on RAS/Minitel on Monday.