Tuesday 30 November 2010

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!


The recent cold spell is playing havoc with the National Hunt fixture list and the three scheduled jumps meetings on Thursday are all facing inspections.

Leicester and Market Rasen are having a look at 10am on Tuesday, while Wincanton aim to hold out until 24 hours later.

Leicester clerk of the course Jimmy Stevenson said: "We've got two inches of snow on the track and it is frozen in places underneath. The forecast is not brilliant. We've got the chance of more snow and then the temperatures for the whole of the week don't look like they are going to go above freezing."

Market Rasen clerk Sulekha Varma said: "There's about an inch to an inch and a half of snow on the track and we are frozen in places."

Wincanton officials want to give their card every opportunity of going ahead and will assess conditions at 10am on Wednesday.

"We've got 20% of the track that is frozen and we have a light covering of snow," said clerk of the course Barry Johnson.

"There's a school of thought we should probably inspect on Tuesday and knock it on the head if it's not raceable, but if we've got any glimmer of hope we will hold on. That's why we are going for Wednesday at 10am and it will be make or break. Things have got to improve by then."

It is a similar scene in Ireland with Wednesday's meeting at Navan cancelled due to snow and a further unfavourable weather forecast. Officials at Sandown admit their two-day meeting, featuring the Tingle Creek Chase on Saturday, could be in the balance unless conditions improve dramatically.

Clerk of the course Andrew Cooper told At The Races: "It's not looking great at this stage. We look like we are going to have below-freezing nights all week and Thursday night is looking particularly cold and daytime temperatures getting no higher than 1C or something like that.

"We have got frost in the ground at the moment so that has got to shift before we can really exude any optimism at all."