Exeter and Plumpton count the cost with 52 runners across 13 races on Monday as dry spell continues to hit

Monday's fixtures at Exeter and Plumpton are the latest to be hit by small fields, as racing struggles to contend with the extended dry spell, with just 52 horses declared across the 13 races at the two meetings.

The unseasonal lack of rain means the going is officially no softer than good at Plumpton, where one race was abandoned after attracting only three declarations and each of the remaining six is a four-runner affair.

Three of the seven races at Exeter, where the ground is described as good, good to firm in places and where there was a walkover at the last meeting, will have just three runners and none of the other contests has a field bigger than five.

"Everyone is in the same boat and it's a bloody nuisance," said Exeter clerk of the course Jason Loosemore. "We have 28 declared runners – I'd have to look back but I don't know if it's ever been so small.

"It is what it is but normally the autumn weather comes and it sits with you for a bit so by now you'd be comfortably good to soft ground in an ordinary year. But our last reasonable rain was two and a half weeks or three weeks ago.

"We started well, we were good, good to firm in places for our first meeting then we were good, good to soft in places but it's dried from there."

He added: "Sunday night into Monday there might be a bit of rain about but I can't get too excited about it yet because it's been put back a couple of times.

"Next week looks unsettled. We race on November 24 and there are indications we could have an inch of rain before then. If we got that, we'd like to think we'd be good, possibly good to soft in places. There's a bit of light at the end of the tunnel — but we'll believe it when we see it!"

Plumpton: small fields at meeting on MondayCredit: Mike Hewitt

It is a similar story at Plumpton, where clerk of the course Marcus Waters said: "It's countrywide, 80 per cent of the courses have good ground and it's been going on for two and a half weeks now so we're starting to run out of horses for the racing we've got. We're grateful for the runners we do have."

He added: "We're due a bit of rain on Monday and it looks a cold week then in the week after there are strong signals of rain. We should have a fair bit ahead of our next meeting on December 2."

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