THE Irish festival - one of the most popular nights on the Worcester racing calendar - has fallen foul of the flooding.

There was no chance of the meeting scheduled for today going ahead as large sections of the Pitchroft racecourse remain under flood water, but course officials hoped to save the Wednesday, July 11, festival.

However, the flood waters have not receded sufficiently for the much-loved event to get the green light.

Hospitality manager Jenny Cheshire said: "We took the decision to abandon next Wednesday's Irish festival yesterday.

"The water on the course has still not gone down - we are still 50 per cent under water and the floods don't seem to be moving.

"It is so disappointing. We've let down our customers without wanting to, but we hope they will understand there is nothing we can do and that they'll keep coming to race meetings at Worcester in the future."

As far as when Worcester racecourse will be fit enough to host another meeting, Cheshire was hopeful the course will be able to stage the evening card set for Wednesday, July 18.

She said: "We are now considering bringing in some pumps as we attempt to get the course ready for the evening race meeting scheduled for July 18.

"We hope to be able to be ready for then, but we just don't know what is still to come. The long-term forecast is still quite iffy and there seems to be more rain on the way."