Weather causing havoc in Britain
An arctic blast of weather is taking its toll on the racing calendar with Huntingdon and Leicester being abandoned today and inspections called for Newbury and Catterick tomorrow.
Officials at Newbury will check on conditions at 7.30am ahead of their six-race card.
Clerk of the course Richard Osgood said: “With the forecast we have, we thought we should have a precautionary inspection.
“There is frost forecast tonight with temperatures of minus two or three and temperatures are not going to rise very high tomorrow, they will only be around one or two degrees and even then they will be slow to rise.”
Catterick will inspect at the same time and while the track is raceable at present, there is a possibility of frost and snow overnight.
Clerk of the course Jonjo Sanderson said: “The forecast is for minus three and snow here, and one or both in combination would cause us problems.
“We could race today, but we are forecast some snow later and have seen one or two showers this morning.”
Despite a cold night on Monday, Chepstow’s marathon eight-race card featuring the Coral Welsh National got the go-ahead after the track passed a second inspection.
Clerk of the course Tim Long said: “We have passed the 8.30am inspection and racing goes ahead. Things have improved here.”
Wetherby also passed an early-morning inspection and chief executive James Sanderson said: “We dropped to minus two and we have had a light dusting of snow, but not enough to worry us.”
Leicester were not so lucky, though, with frost and snow claiming their meeting following a second inspection at 11am.
Clerk of the course Jimmy Stevenson said: “Unfortunately we have had to abandon as the temperature is still below freezing.
“There is frost in the ground and it is snowing at the moment.”
Huntingdon’s card did initially look set to take place after passing a 7.30am inspection but conditions deteriorated, forcing officials to have another look.
Clerk of the course Fiona Needham said: “I’m afraid we have had to abandon. We have had further snow and it has become a safety issue.
“It has kept snowing during the morning and it has not cleared as we thought it would.”
