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Fairyhouse given green light.
This afternoon’s national hunt card at Fairyhouse has been given a green light, albeit concerns still exist about the state of the chase course.
An overnight frost made conditions unraceable at Fairyhouse’s first inspection at 8.00 am, but by a second inspection at 10.30 am, Irish Turf Club Officials had given the go-ahead to the 4 Hurdle and the Bumper Race on this afternoon’s scheduled card.
The last two races on the race programme are due to be run over the chase course, and officials have indicated a decision on whether those 2 races go ahead will be made during the course of the meeting.
Sunday meetings under threat.
Although parts of the course at Musselburgh were frozen on Saturday morning, the Scottish venue is due to miss the worst of the snow and frost forecast to hit late this afternoon and then overnight, and General Manager Bill Farnsworth is remaining optimistic about the track’s Sunday Cheltenham Trials Meeting ahead of a 9.00 am inspection on Sunday morning.
With heavy snow fall a potential hazard in the Greater London area in the next 24 hours, officials at Kempton have called an 8.00 am inspection tomorrow morning ahead of Sunday afternoon’s scheduled all-weather flat card.
Long devastated as Ffos Las are forced to abandoned.
Ffos Las Clerk of the Course Tim Long admitted he was devastated for all concerned when he was forced to abandon today's Welsh Champion Hurdle card due to a frozen track at the South Wales venue.
Temperatures overnight fell to -1c and this on top of freezing temperatures on Thursday night left the course with frozen patches that made racing unsafe and untenable.
Today's card was to have been Ffos Las' flagship national hunt meeting, with the Nicky Henderson-trained Oscar Whisky due to defend his Welsh Champion Hurdle crown for owner and Ffos Las chief executive Dai Walters.
Officials were so keen to get the meeting on, they even looked at the possibilities of re-scheduling the card to take place tomorrow, but after due consultation, Tim Long revealed:
"Temperatures dropped to -1c overnight, and there is currently a fierce wind chill. Today’s temperatures are expected to creep up, but it will only be by a degree or two, and that won’t be enough.
“Thursday night temperatures dropped down to -6c, and that is what really did the damage.
“We did look into holding the meeting on Sunday, but logistically it just isn’t going to be possible. There are various reasons, but in essence, we just cannot put a team together in time.
“We don’t want to tell people we are re-scheduling, and then find we don’t have the team sufficient to allow racing to go ahead.
“We’re absolutely devastated, as everyone has worked so hard to get racing on.”
Park not open for business on Sunday.
With his course frozen solid, and with a forecast of potentially heavy snow on the way, Fontwell Park Clerk of the Course Ed Arkell has decided his intended inspection at 12.30 pm today is irrelevent, and he therefore took an early decision to abandon tomorrow’s scheduled national hunt carde.
Market Rasen set to take a look.
With a frozen course, and temperatures last night dropping down to -8c, officials at Market Rasen have decided to hold a precautionary inspection of their track at 8.00 am on Monday morning ahead of their scheduled Tuesday afternoon national hunt card.
According to the Met Office, temperatures are expected to start slowly rising after tonight, and the Monday inspection has been called to ensure an early assessment of the chances of racing going ahead at the Lincolnshire venue on Tuesday.
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