Up to 60,000 people are expected to bet close on £5.5 million when Leopardstown's Christmas festival begins on St Stephen's Day.

The four-day meeting is a traditional Christmas outing for many once-a-year racegoers but this will be the last time many such punters will see Leopardstown as they know it now.

A significant part of the track is being given over to the construction of the M50 motorway extension and plans are for building to begin on July 1st next year.

The plan is for the motorway to pass just 10 yards from the fence that is currently placed just past the stands and cut right through the current sprint track.

That will mean a substantial reduction in the size of the racecourse site but racing authorities are anxious about the effect on next summer's racing programme and there are fears the Group 1 Heinz 57 Stakes could be lost.

The closing date for tenders for the construction is January 22nd but crucial meetings between Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and the Leopardstown authorities, who want a postponement of the start of building to September, are expected next month.

"We signed an agreement with Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Council three years ago and if that is complied with there will be no disruption to racing next year," the Leopardstown manager Matt O'Dwyer said yesterday.

In the meantime, the track is bracing itself for up to 20,000 visitors on St Stephen's Day, a fixture which saw over £1.2 million was bet with the bookmakers alone last year.

There are two other home fixtures on Tuesday, at Cork and Down Royal, while there will be huge interest when Ireland's top steeplechaser Florida Pearl tackles See More Business and First Gold, the best chasers in Britain and France respectively, in Kempton's King George VI Chase.

"If Florida Pearl can get past those two, there won't be too many in front of him," said trainer Willie Mullins.

That race will be shown live on Channel 4 and RTE are covering the first three days of the Leopardstown meeting. That will include the Wednesday highlight, the £125,000 paddypower.com chase, and the next start of the popular Nick Dundee in Thursday's Ericsson Chase.

However, there will be no live pictures of one of Ireland's most famous horses, Istabraq, who is due to run on Friday. The JP McManus-owned star, winner of the last three Champion Hurdles, is one of 14 horses left in the AIB Festival Hurdle.

The St Stephen's Day feature at Leopardstown is the £60,000 Denny Gold Medal Novice Chase, where the JP McManus-owned Knife Edge is the most likely favourite to beat five other runners.