There are doubts developing about whether Tipperary`s prestige fixture scheduled for Saturday will be able to go ahead at the track, and contingency plans are being made to run the meeting elsewhere.
The course, which has a history of flooding, was raceable yesterday but an inch of rain was forecast to fall in the area last night and that could spell trouble.
Limestone Lad, who made an impressive winning debut at Cork last weekend, is scheduled to appear in the Kevin McManus Novice Chase, and the featured John James McManus Hurdle is a target for last season`s top novice Youlneverwalkalone.
All of which is a sure sign of the approaching winter but Navan hosts a seven-race flat card this afternoon when the accent is sure to be on stamina.
And that makes the presence of the Cheltenham festival bumper winner, Joe Cullen, in the concluding two-mile maiden all the more significant for punters.
The Willie Mullins-trained five-year-old was a surprise Cheltenham winner, but there was no semblance of a fluke about his three-and a half length defeat of Inca and he looks a really talented prospect.
Some hardy jumping regulars such as Tisrabraq and Delphi Lodge are also in the field, but the performance of Joe Cullen will be of most interest for punters.
The most valuable pot is for the mile maiden where slight preference is for Taraza ; and John Oxx and John Murtagh can also land the mile and a half maiden with the In The Wings horse, Tachuri, who has been given time since his only start to date behind Narratuer.
A significant runner in the opening five-furlong nursery looks to be Millenium Love, who gets another taste of the soft ground on which she won at the Curragh at the start of May.
Since then the filly has run twice on fast going, the last time behind Ceann Amhain Eile at Fairyhouse, but now she is back on a heavy surface she could be an entirely different prospect off just 8-13.
The hardy Moving On Up, second to Helen Bach at Listowel, could be tough enough to hold off six others in the Downpatrick Race.
Tomorrow`s scheduled meeting at Dundalk has been cancelled. The track was inspected yesterday and found to be waterlogged and unraceable.
