Hopes rising for Newbury

An encouraging weather forecast at Newbury saw the market for racing to go ahead at the weekend take an about-turn yesterday.

The meeting sponsors Betfair warned the Berkshire track’s prestigious card was trading at around 8-11 to be abandoned during the morning and 11-10 to beat the freeze, but those prices had switched by mid-afternoon.

Clerk of the course Richard Osgood has already deployed frost covers and has been keenly checking the weather databases.