The Irish Racehorse Trainers Association (IRTA) yesterday fired a salvo across the bows of the Turf Club with a strongly-worded indictment of what they saw as a failure "to adopt a more stringent adherence to its obligations and responsibilities".

This critique was sparked off by the abandonment of two recent meetings, Dundalk and Gowran Park, and the state of the track at Sligo which occasioned the withdrawal of 28 declared runners.

Willie Mullins, chairman of the IRTA, explained the problems with the three meetings. He said: "Dundalk (May 22nd) was called off by the inspector of courses and we didn't receive any explanation which was totally unsatisfactory.

"At Sligo (May 31st) over a third of the trainers took their horses out because the ground was rough and firm. I think there was something like 32 non-runners at the meeting.

"And with Gowran (last Sunday) they had an inspection at 6.00 on Sunday morning and didn't tell anyone. They had a huge amount of rain on Saturday and yet nobody was informed the meeting was in doubt. People turned up at the track and found the gates locked with nobody there tell them the meeting was off. There was no PR.

"I don't blame the courses but the governing body. The buck stops with them."

In response the Turf Club through its spokesman Michael O'Rourke expressed surprise. He said: "Racing at Dundalk was abandoned because the track was unfit. The stewards of the Turf Club held an inquiry and found that the Dundalk management had failed to carry out appropriate maintenance.

"The matter was dealt with immediately and the Dundalk management were warned to put their house in order."

The Turf Club also looked at the meeting at Sligo and found that the course was not prepared in time because staff had urgent security problems to deal with.

"There were 28 withdrawals, 20 of which were because of the ground. But several trainers who took their horses out ran others in subsequent races. The going was safe and no horses were reported lame to the vet afterwards."

O'Rourke felt that officials at Gowran had been caught out by the weather. "The course was raceable on Saturday afternoon but they had a cloudburst so they had to hold a late inspection.

"As soon as the meeting was called off on Sunday morning, all the media were informed. It was on Aertel by 7.15 a.m, broadcast on RTE national radio and all the racing correspondents were informed."

Details of the inquiries about Dundalk and Sligo will be in this week's Irish Racing Calendar.

Sheikh Mohammed introduces a well-bred filly Chalna with Royal Ascot connections at Naas tonight. She is out of Chalon who won the Coronation Stakes at the Royal meeting and her grand dam Areola was second in the Queen Mary Stakes there.

The best of Chalon's produce to date has been the Group One Prix Ganay winner Creator who won more than £300,000 on the track. Chalna will therefore be a valuable addition to the mares at Kildangan at due course and in the meantime she can win at first time of asking from Juinevera.