Cold snap threatens jump cards

Both of tomorrow’s jumps meetings at Fakenham and Fontwell hinge on early morning inspections.

With a cold snap forecast tonight Fakenham will check the track at 6am while Fontwell will inspect an hour later.

Snow and frost are predicted for Fakenham and clerk of the course David Hunter will walk the circuit first thing in the morning.

“We are forecast snow overnight tonight and if we get that snow temperatures are forecast to fall to zero or minus two degrees,” he explained.

“I’m told that temperatures will not rise above two or three degrees in the morning so we’ll see what snow there is first thing and then make the decisions from there.

“If necessary we could hold a further inspection at 7.30am.”

Fontwell clerk of the course Geoff Stickels will inspect the West Sussex track at 7am.

“Our ground is still good but due to a forecast frost tonight I have called a precautionary 7am inspection,” he said.

“There’s a small chance of a wintery shower this evening but no snow is forecast.”

Officials at Wolverhampton are confident their all-weather card will go ahead at this stage despite heavy rain yesterday.

They have had to carry out some essential drainage work on the track since losing a meeting to rain on December 1.

Their midweek meetings have been staged at Southwell for the last two weeks as the work was carried out and clerk of the course Jon Pullin reports the track to be ready for racing.

He said: “The drainage work has been completed this week, the track has been reinstated and we are ready to race.

“We had 19 millimetres of rain yesterday but the track coped with it well and we are raceable today.”

Temperatures are set to drop overnight but Pullin has no plans for an inspection.

“Temperatures are forecast to go below freezing overnight and we are on standby to work the track through the night,” he added.

“There’s no inspection planned at the moment.”