'A fence has been blown apart' - Wincanton and Haydock meetings in the balance

Wincanton's Kingwell Hurdle fixture on Saturday must pass a raceday inspection after the racecourse was battered by the elements of Storm Eunice on Friday afternoon, with parts of the course including a fence "blown apart".

Powerful gusts of up to 50mph hit the Somerset track at 11am but increasing wind speeds have left the open ditch in the back straight and third-last fence decimated, while fence wings have been severely damaged as well as a tree falling on to the course – alongside multiple power cuts.

With gale-force winds of up to 80mph and a Met Office amber weather warning in place in the south-west of England until 9pm, officials at the track and a BHA representative will assess conditions at 7.30am to see if the damage is repairable before the seven-race card on Saturday.

Saturday cards and betting

Clerk of the course Daniel Cooper said: "I went into a meeting with staff about where things were at midday, which helped me come up with the decision. There is some untraceable damage on the racetrack, which is a new issue we're starting to see as it gets worse here.

"There's three incidents at the moment, two of which are repairable. A tree is down on the track which we can remove, and the second is damage to the open ditch in the back straight, which has basically been blown apart, but can be fixed.

"The third issue is we're beginning to lose more fence wings than we've got in place, so we're working on that one."

Wincanton clerk Daniel Cooper (right): 'Thank God, we're not racing out there today'Credit: Edward Whitaker

Ground conditions are not set to play a factor in the inspection with the going soft, good to soft in places, and Cooper said emergency measures are in place to help try to save the fixture.

A tree surgeon will be at the track at 8am to remove the fallen tree and the damaged third-last will be omitted should the track race, with the hope the open ditch in the back straight can be repaired in time.

"We're drafting in additional staff now and hoping that at 7.30am we can start fixing things rather than give up. We're not on that front yet, it's just time and people we need," he added.

"Speeds are increasing on the weather station and certainly not decreasing. It's been pretty substantial and one of the most severe storms we've seen in the last couple of seasons. Thank God, we're not racing out there today."

Champion trainer Paul Nicholls, based nearby in Ditcheat, said: "It's not too bad, although it's bloody windy and stormy. We dealt with the horses who are running, but left anything else. It would have been dangerous to walk around the roads with debris flying about and you normally get hold-ups at this time of year, but when you get a red warning you have to heed it. We played it safe and it was bad, but not too bad and we've still got electricity."

Haydock 'in for a rough ride' with inspection planned

Haydock's Saturday card is "nip and tuck" to go ahead after officials announced an 8am inspection on raceday morning for its Grand National Trial fixture following heavy rainfall at the track.

While high winds is the cause for concern at Wincanton, a week of wet weather and 10mm rain on Friday has left the going as heavy at Haydock, but further forecast rain has forced course officials to call a morning check despite the track being raceable.

Clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright said: "The forecast is for it to continue to rain through the rest of the day into the small hours and for wind gusts to reach 48mph, so the worst of it is ahead of us.

"I don't think we've had the wind to the same degree as it's been in the south, it's been strong but not calamitously so. We're not putting the wings up until tomorrow but there's running rail down and various signs and, but that happens every now and again.

"It's nip and tuck [regarding Saturday], it was raceable this morning and it's just about be raceable now. There's not much point in worrying about it until tomorrow."

Ascot 'confident' as it escapes worst of the storm

Ascot has escaped any significant track damage ahead of its Betfair Ascot Chase card, with clerk of the course Chris Stickels confident the marquee jumps fixture can go ahead as planned.

Speaking on Friday, he said: "We've had gusts of up to 60mph at the moment that we've recorded, tomorrow we're expecting 20mph and gusts of up to 40mph. We haven't put out any temporary infrastructure on-site, but we've had one tree down and some branches down. We've got thousands of trees on our site so it's not unsurprising.

"If the forecast is correct and there's no serious damage to infrastructure, we're confident that we should be okay. The ground is soft and we're not expecting it to change today or tomorrow."

High winds have also affected Ireland's fixtures, with conditions for Saturday's Gowran card now soft to heavy ahead of the feature Grade 2 Red Mills Chase, while a fallen tree also narrowly avoided the racecourse entrance.

Further assessments of the track were due to be carried out following the worst of the storm by midday on Friday.

Read more on Storm Eunice:

'It was getting pretty scary by third lot' – Nicky Henderson battles the storm

Lingfield and Southwell off but Kelso survives as Storm Eunice wreaks havoc

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