Frost threatens Sandown meeting

Sandown’s high-profile meeting on Saturday is the latest meeting to be thrown into doubt due to the current cold snap in the UK.

There are inspections planned up and down the country for the New Year period and although Sandown clerk of the course Andrew Cooper has not called an official check, he admits conditions need to improve.

“We had a very sharp frost on Monday night and it got down to as low as minus five for a time,” said Cooper.

“As expected, it only rose to around plus three today and we do have areas of frozen ground – we wouldn’t have raced today.

“We have got to see some improvement for us to go ahead but it does look as though every night from now on is going to be at or just below freezing so hopefully Monday night was the coldest night of the week.

“The main problem we have is that the daytime temperatures aren’t rising above three degrees which is not really enough to get things moving in terms of shifting frost.

“We have covered quite an extensive area in front of the stands as that area doesn’t see any sunlight during the day and we have also covered all take-off and landings.

“It is pointless covering any more as the frost is in the ground.

“There is no inspection planned but we will take a further view on that on Wednesday and the earliest time we would look would be Thursday lunchtime.”

It is a slightly brighter picture at Cheltenham, with clerk of the course Simon Claisse confident that Prestbury Park’s New Year’s Day feature will go ahead.

“We got down to around minus two but that was at 7pm last night and at dawn we were just freezing, so we would have been raceable today,” said Claisse.

“We’ve had cloud cover and hopefully we can keep that.

“We are forecast minus three tonight so we will see how we are looking tomorrow before considering whether we should have a precautionary inspection on Thursday.”

Wednesday’s meetings at Uttoxeter and Warwick are both subject to inspections, with the former set to take a look at 7.30am due to threat of a heavy overnight frost.

Clerk of the course Keith Ottesen said: “We remain hopeful as long as we don’t get the frost – we are at the mercy of the weather.”

Warwick’s clerk of the course Andrew Morris called a check for 8am and added: “We were forecast to get down to minus three last night but the cloud cover meant we only just dipped below freezing.

“We are faced with a similar forecast tonight but it was wrong last night which gives us every hope it will be a similar story again.”

Exeter have already been forced to abandon the chases at their New Year’s Day meeting but hope to split three of the remaining events to form a seven-race card – provided the track passes an 11am inspection on Wednesday.

Fakenham’s Thursday card is subject to a 12pm inspection on Wednesday and clerk of the course David Hunter said: “We got down to around minus three last night and we couldn’t have raced today.

“We are forecast similar temperatures for tonight so we will see what happens.”

Looking even further ahead, officials at Ayr will assess track conditions at 9.30am on Thursday ahead of their meetings on Friday and Saturday.

Clerk of the course Katherine Self said: “This is very frustrating as there is a good covering of grass on the course and we moved early to lay covers, but frost is still getting into the ground.

“Daytime temperatures are only rising to three degrees and the band of high pressure that has brought us this weather is not likely to move.

“We can only hope that the forecasters have got it wrong.”