Hopes high for Cheltenham despite cold snap
Cheltenham leads an air of optimism that 2009 will begin with jumps racing despite the current cold spell that continues to bite into the fixture list.
Cheltenham, Catterick and Exeter have all called precautionary checks at 8am tomorrow but all remain optimistic about their chances of racing on New Year’s Day. Fakenham will look at 7.30am.
Temperatures dropped as low as minus seven degrees overnight at Cheltenham but having covered the course on Sunday, the ground is holding up well and the frost is not expected to be as fierce overnight.
“Temperatures got up to minus one today, but having said that, we were looking round at 1.30pm and everything was fine,” said clerk of the course Simon Claisse.
“We pulled one of the covers to one side at 9.30am as that’s the time we need to be removing them tomorrow and by 3.30pm it had not gone white with the frost and the ground underneath had not frozen.
“That was encouraging and I walked the course this afternoon and everywhere under the covers was fine and one or two areas where we hadn’t laid covers, as we haven’t raced on it at all, were all fine as well.
“Bearing in mind last night’s experience with minus seven which didn’t seem to prevent us from being raceable this morning, tonight is minus four.
“We are forecast a dawn temperature of minus two which is three degrees warmer than this morning, so we can only be optimistic.”
Exeter were forced to call off the chases scheduled for the fixture on Tuesday but after covering the hurdles track, clerk Barry Johnson is hopeful about their prospects.
“We are forecast minus one tonight. If it doesn’t get any worse than that we’d be OK, so it’s fingers crossed.”
His Catterick counterpart Fiona Needham has taken similar encouragement from overnight events.
She said: “If we can maintain cloud cover we will be fine, but we are forecast to drop to between minus one and three tonight so we felt it prudent to take a look.”
Thursday’s meeting at Fakenham is subject to a further inspection at 7.30am.
An initial look at midday on Wednesday proved inconclusive but any further frost would place the meeting in some doubt.
“We wouldn’t be able to race today but we have no frost forecast and we should have some cloud cover. Any frost at all would put the kibosh on us,” said clerk of the course David Hunter.
However, racing on Friday and Saturday looks like being hit with several inspections already being called.
Prospects for Ayr’s two-day programme are bleak with tomorrow’s 9.30am inspection looking a mere formality.
The course has been frozen for the last three days and the forecast is for more cold weather.
“It’s very unlikely we are going to be racing based on the forecast,” said clerk of the course Katherine Self.
Jumps racing is also scheduled for Folkestone on Friday. Although the track is currently frozen in places, no inspection has yet been planned as temperatures are set to rise and could be as high as plus seven on Friday.
Saturday’s meeting at Sandown, featuring the Grade One Blue Square Tolworth Hurdle, is under severe threat due to frost.
Clerk of the course Andrew Cooper has called an inspection for noon tomorrow to assess the situation as early as possible.
He said: “We’ve called an inspection for tomorrow as that is the earliest we are allowed to look and we’ll just take stock.
“We are some way off racing at the moment, parts of the course are frozen solid but I wouldn’t say it is a lost cause just yet.”
Officials at Wincanton rate their chances of racing on Saturday as 50-50.
There was no jumps racing on the final day of 2008 with the meetings at Uttoxeter and Warwick being lost while an additional all-weather fixture has been arranged at Kempton on Saturday.
