Thurles bring forward inspection due to unfavourable forecast
Officials had initially called a 9am check on the morning of racing but have decided to look earlier due to an unfavourable weather forecast.
The chases at the venue have already been abandoned due to the state of the ground and track officials will take a look to decide whether a card consisting of five hurdles races and a bumper can get the green light.
The Turf Club’s Cliff Noone said: “They have brought forward the inspection due to an unfavourable weather forecast.
“They first heard temperatures were meant to rise later in the week but that doesn’t look like being the case now and the frost is in the ground.”
Meanwhile Ayr are planning to stage an additional six-race card on Saturday as jumps racing up and down the country continues to be hit by freezing temperatures.
The Scottish track have been given the green light to host a National Hunt fixture but the venue will have to beat the current cold snap itself.
The Blue Square-sponsored day is scheduled to kick off at 1.20 with a total of £65,000 in prize-money up for grabs.
Ayr’s general manager William Gorol said: “This is a great shot in the arm following the loss of our two-day New Year meeting.
“There has been a lot of racing lost recently so it will be good to have an extra meeting here at Ayr.”
With prospects looking bleak for the next few days, Kelso’s meeting on Friday appears to offer the first realistic chance of any jump racing in Britain this week.
Both Musselburgh and Fontwell’s Wednesday cards were frozen off more than a day in advance but Kelso clerk of the course Anthea Morshead is upbeat on their chances of racing.
She said: “I’m hopeful for Friday at Kelso, it is supposed to be milder by the end of the week.”
Thursday’s prospects for Hereford and Catterick are not encouraging with officials at the former virtually conceding defeat already.
Hereford clerk of the course Katie Stephens explained: “The chances are very slim.
“We are inspecting at 8am tomorrow morning and we’ll need a miracle to run.
“It was minus eight last night, it’s minus two at the moment and down to minus seven again tonight.”
Catterick boss Fiona Needham is similarly pessimistic ahead of the North Yorkshire venue’s 12 noon inspection on Wednesday.
“It is very cold here now and it was minus seven overnight so obviously we are frozen,” said Needham.
“The forecast seems to have deteriorated in that we are only forecast a slight frost tonight but then temperatures of minus three or four on Wednesday night.
“It is not good at the moment and we have called an inspection for 12 noon on Wednesday.”
The other jumping card on Friday is at Huntingdon, but their clerk of the course Andrew Morris reported: “We got down to minus seven last night and the track is obviously frozen.
“The forecast for the next couple of nights is for more frost and if it is correct, we are going to struggle.
“There is no inspection planned as yet, but I expect there will be.”
Morris is also in charge at Warwick, where the totesport.com Classic Chase is to be held on Saturday.
He added: “The situation is fairly similar to Huntingdon. The track remains frozen and we are forecast low temperatures for the next three or four nights.
“The forecast yesterday offered us some encouragement that temperatures were going to rise towards the end of the week but I am not sure they will rise sufficiently high enough to get the frost out of the ground.”
