Uttoxeter host remaining action

Uttoxeter takes centre stage this afternoon as the only meeting in Britain to survive the recent heavy rain.

Both Windsor and Salisbury failed their early morning inspections but clerk of the course Keith Ottesen reports no problems at Uttoxeter.

He said: “The chase course is heavy and the hurdles track is soft, heavy in places in the home straight but we definitely go ahead.

“We have no inspection planned and no problems expected.”

Salisbury clerk Jeremy Martin was the first to admit defeat after staging a 7am inspection. Martin had been forced to look due to the threat of heavy rain on Saturday night.

He said: “We have had 24 millimetres of rain overnight on top of ground that was already heavy in places. Those patches of ground are now unstable and there is a band of rain about so I’m afraid we have abandoned.”

It was a similar story at Windsor where clerk of the course Gemma Charrington held an 8am inspection.

Although racing took place at the venue on Saturday without a problem, heavy rain took its toll on the track.

Charrington said: “We have had to abandon as we are waterlogged in places.

“We’ve had 15 millimetres of rain since yesterday morning and the bend is completely waterlogged as we raced on it yesterday and opened up the ground.”

Windsor are scheduled to race again on Monday evening and Charrington initially called an inspection for 4pm today ahead of that fixture.

However, officials later decided to switch the decision to 8am on Monday.

“We could get another two to five millimetres until midday and the forecast is improving so it’s fingers crossed.

“We are forecast a dry night so we have decided to look tomorrow instead. We want to give the meeting every chance of going ahead.”