Hopes rising for Newbury
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.
He said: “Things haven’t changed much since yesterday and we are still good to soft, soft in places.
“At the moment, we are going to get a frost tonight, which will probably be the worst frost we have all week, and temperatures will not get up much tomorrow when it will be about 1C and cloudy. There will be another frost tomorrow night, but not as bad as tonight.”
The midweek programme continues to be plagued by the frost and snow, but one bright spot comes with Musselburgh stepping in to stage last weekend’s abandoned meeting this Saturday instead.
The East Lothian course was thwarted by the weather when attempting to hold their big jumping card last Sunday, which features the John Smith’s Scottish Champion Chase, John Smith’s Scottish Triumph Hurdle and John Smith’s Future Champions Novices’ Chase.
The British Horseracing Authority offered tracks the opportunity to hold another meeting, with several of the other courses staging fixtures potentially at risk to the elements. Musselburgh’s card will be similar to last week with the first race at 1.30pm.
Musselburgh general manager Bill Farnsworth said: “It was very frustrating as we were so close on Sunday – the track was raceable by the end of the day – but we’ve got a second chance.
“Between all the various parties we’ve got £75,000 of prize money to offer and it depends on what the BHA decide to put on.”
Kempton’s all-weather card will be the only action on Wednesday with Ludlow and Carlisle joining Lingfield in waving the white flag.
Thursday’s meeting at Doncaster has also been abandoned due to frost and snow, and Huntingdon is under threat on the same afternoon.
Conditions did improve slowly yesterday but another night of sub-zero temperatures are forecast with an inspection called for 8am today.
Clerk of the course Sulekha Varma said: “We are still snow covered and frozen in places.”
Varma is also the clerk at Warwick, who race on Saturday, and she said: “On Thursday and Friday the temperatures might get high enough to help so we’ll just have to see what happens.”
