Plumpton in the balance

Conditions at Plumpton will have to improve dramatically if Monday’s meeting is to survive.

Temperatures touched minus nine on Friday night and after successive frosts, hopes are not high it will come out of the ground in time.

“Last night’s frost was the most severe yet, it got down to minus nine,” said clerk of the course Mark Cornford.

“After seven nights of sub zero temperatures the frost has got into the ground really deep.

“It is still minus one now so it is not thawing. It’s supposed to be minus two tonight but rise overnight and some rain is forecast.

“I just think that the frost is in so deep it won’t have enough time to get out of the ground in time.

“If it does thaw a little we might have another look on Monday morning but we’ll try to keep everybody informed as early as we can.”