THE Irish Horseracing Authority has decided to postpone the opening of the new Cork racecourse (at Mall ow) scheduled to take place on Easter Sunday, March 30th, a fixture that was also to launch the opening of the Flat season.

The following day's fixture on Easter Monday has also been postponed because "the ground has not yet settled sufficiently and more time is needed".

A new date and venue for the commencement of the Flat season will be decided by the Fixtures and Programmes Committees, which will meet in the course of the next week to consider the implications of the postponements for programmes and fixtures and to decide on a new date for the opening of Cork racecourse.

The likely scenario is that the Flat will revert to its original launch date at the Curragh on April 6th (Sunday).

In a statement issued yesterday evening, the IHA stated that "in the course of reviewing progress on the development of the race-course, the authority had before it a number of reports, in particular a report on the condition of the racetrack from the Inspector of Courses of the Turf Club.

"While the reports on the grandstand and enclosure facilities indicated that these would be completed ahead of schedule, the authority was concerned, based on the advice contained in the inspector's report, that the racetrack might not be ready in time to enable racing to take place on Easter Sunday.

"In developing the new racecourse, major improvements were carried out to the track itself, including the raising of a significant area of the surface. This involved resodding over an extensive area of the track.

"The advice available to the authority indicated that, while the sods had knitted well, the ground has not yet settled sufficiently and more time is needed. The authority concluded, therefore, that it would be inadvisable to take any risk with the track and that the long-term interests of the race-course required a postponement of the fixtures scheduled for Easter Sunday and Easter Monday - 30th-31st March."

Because of the history of Mallow racecourse, which has suffered from severe flooding problems over the years, the IHA, and in particular its chairman Denis Brosnan, have come in for some severe criticism for investing so much money in the new track.

Dale Gibson who suffered serious injuries in a fall at Beverley five months ago, returns to action at Wolverhampton today.