Newcastle gets green light, Chepstow for second check

This afternoon’s fixture at Newcastle goes ahead following an 8am precautionary inspection.

The prospect of heavy overnight rain had put the meeting, featuring the totesport.com Eider Chase, in a shade of doubt.

Clerk of the course James Armstrong was, however, buoyed by conditions following a morning assessment.

“We’ve only had a couple of millimetres since 5am so I don’t see a problem,” he said.

“If anything, the rain has probably helped freshen the ground up a bit.

“It has stopped raining now, but it will be extremely testing ground.”

However this afternoon’s meeting at Chepstow is now subject to a 9.30am inspection.

Heavy overnight rain has left the jumps fixture on knife-edge after clerk of the course Keith Ottesen assessed conditions at 7.30am.

“We are borderline at the moment,” he said.

“In total since Friday we have had 21 millimetres of rain up to 7.30am and it’s still raining a little bit now.

“If it stops, we have a small squeak, but we need to give ourselves more time.

“One, two, or three more millimetres of rain and we wouldn’t be racing.”