Sandown 'reasonably positive' about prospects for main Saturday fixture as inspections called for two of three Friday meetings

Sandown officials are “reasonably positive” about the prospects of Saturday’s main meeting on ITV going ahead despite the threat of overnight frost.

An overnight low of -3C to -4C was expected at the Esher track on Thursday night and the forecast suggests temperatures could dip to as low as -2C on Friday night. A daytime temperature of 3C is forecast on Saturday.

The going is soft on the hurdle course and soft, good to soft in places on the chase course after 12mm of rain on Wednesday.

Andrew Cooper, clerk of the course at Sandown, said: “I’m reasonably positive about our prospects of racing although we’re not completely out of the woods with a couple of nights of sharpish frosts and lowish daytime temperatures to get through.

“Our soil temperature is high comparably for early January, which helps avoid a penetrating, deep frost, and we’ve covered the shaded and worn areas. I’m hoping we should be okay as long as the temperatures that are forecast are in the range that has been suggested.”

Overnight lows of -3C and -2C were expected at Wincanton on Thursday and Friday night and clerk of the course Tom Ryall is hopeful the Somerset track will be able to cope with the two nights of low temperatures before Saturday’s fixture. It is set to peak at 3C on raceday.

Ryall said: “We have frost covers down on vulnerable areas and we have a good grass covering which will help. It’s been quite a mild festive period and our soil temperature is quite high, so I’d like to think we’ll be able to tackle two nights of low temperatures, but we’ll reassess the situation after tonight’s frost.”

Musselburgh's jumps fixture and Lingfield's all-weather meeting on Friday must pass inspections.

Officials held an inspection at Musselburgh on Thursday morning and found the ground to be raceable when undergoing a second check at 4pm. They will take a third look at 8am.

Musselburgh's clerk of the course Rory Innes said at 4.15pm: "We have a frost warning for tonight. It is forecast to be -1C until midnight and then cloud over.

"It's wise to check again in the morning and the track is completely raceable now. We have frost covers down on most of the track and all fences."

Lingfield's Polytrack course must pass a 7.30am inspection, with temperatures set to drop to -4C overnight before the nine-race all-weather fixture, which is due to start at 11.45.

Clerk of the course Stephanie Wethered said on Thursday: "We've called an inspection due to the sudden drop in temperature we anticipate overnight. We're due to be above 0C from 10am tomorrow.

"We haven't seen temperatures this low through the winter yet, and with the sudden drop we want to make sure everything is alright on raceday morning."

The evening all-weather meeting takes place at Southwell on Friday and gets under way at 4.30.

Temperatures are set to drop to -3C before Cork's meeting on Saturday. The going is soft after 25mm of rain since entries were made, with 2-3mm of rain forecast during the meeting.

Clonmel officials are already monitoring the situation for next Thursday's fixture with temperatures set to be as low as -4C next week.

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