Worcester August itinerary a wash-out

Worcester have been forced to abandon their two scheduled meetings on August 10 and 21 due to the recent flood crisis.

The course is currently underwater after the River Severn burst its banks.

All five scheduled meetings in July have also been lost to waterlogging - including Wednesday’s fixture and next Tuesday’s card.

And with their last fixture in June another victim of the atrocious conditions, Worcester officials were left counting the cost of eight consecutive abandoned meetings.

Clerk of the course Fergus Cameron said: “I believe we have spring tides this weekend so whether the levels are going to go back up again I don’t know, but we might have a couple of dry days first which could give us some respite.

“The financial implications for the industry are obviously dire. The trainers still get training fees but the National Hunt jockeys don’t get any riding fees.

“We’ve cancelled our meetings for August but at this stage it would not be prudent to look any further ahead.

“We need to wait for water levels to drop and even though they are going down, I’m not able to access the racecourse to assess it.

“The main concern is that this is the second time in a month it has happened so levels may take longer to drop.

“We’ve now cancelled eight meetings in a row and I would have thought that is unprecedented anywhere else.

“However, I’ve heard that the grandstand itself isn’t flooded this time which did happen in 2000-01.

“We have to keep our fingers crossed but at this stage it would be totally inappropriate to say we are not going to race in September.”