Green light for Ascot

Ascot’s meeting this afternoon will go ahead as planned after the course passed a precautionary 8am inspection.

Officials had been expecting temperatures to drop to as low as minus four overnight and even though there was a frost, the coldest recorded temperature was minus two and a half degrees.

“The meeting goes ahead, we’ve no problems,” said clerk of the course Chris Stickels.

“We dropped to minus two and a half so not nearly as bad as the forecast. It should be a great day of racing.”

The meeting gets under way at 12.10pm with the feature race, the Coral Ascot Hurdle, at 1.50pm.