MONDAY will see a new first for Irish racing in its current guise, the return of National Hunt action. Between then and the following Monday four of Ireland’s 26 racecourses will host jumping action, starting with Limerick. This week I caught up with the managers of the tracks in question.

Patrick O’Callaghan has had the advantage among the quartet of having staged a meeting behind closed doors prior to lockdown, and this week he held a flat meeting. He said: “We are aiming to provide good jumping ground, which is slower that the good ground we had for Wednesday’s flat card. We have been watering this week and will see what the forecast is before doing more at the weekend. There is a good sup of rain forecast but that could change. We’ll take it day-by-day.