Southwell 'cautiously optimistic' for all-weather evening meeting with second inspection on snow-hit track at 11.30am

Southwell's all-weather evening meeting must pass a second inspection at 11.30am but Carlisle's fixture goes ahead as tracks across Britain were hit by snowfall overnight.

A yellow weather warning across parts of Britain was issued by the Met Office up until 11am on Tuesday and Southwell was affected by overnight snow. Officials assessed conditions at 10am, but will do so again an hour and a half later, with the nine-race card set to begin at 4.30. 

The track said it is "cautiously optimistic" in an update after the first inspection.

Speaking before then at 7.20am, clerk of the course John Holliday said: "We got considerably more snow than was forecast. Around two inches of snow fell, but it's due to warm up and turn into rain.

"Forecasts can be wrong, but if it's supposed to do as it seems, then I'm confident we could be fine and the roads around us to get access to the track are fine too as they were gritted."

Carlisle's Tuesday meeting has been given the go-ahead after passing an inspection at 8am, with officials continuing to monitor conditions during the day. 

Clerk of the course Harry Phipps said: "We've passed the inspection after snow didn't materialise at the track overnight. The course coped with the low temperatures very well and we're hoping we can get up to 3C too. The track has done really well."

However, the jumps meetings at Warwick and Hexham on Wednesday must pass inspections on raceday morning due to the threat of low temperatures.

The going at Warwick is good to soft, but temperatures could drop below freezing at the track overnight and officials will check conditions at 7am.

Warwick's clerk of the course Nessie Chanter said at 8.15am: "We had 11mm of rainfall yesterday and 8mm more rain overnight, but we also had 2cm of snow overnight. We're expecting the dusting to continue until around 11am and then temperatures will hopefully rise in the afternoon before going to -1C overnight.

"We're cautiously optimistic about racing, but we'll need a bit of luck as there's a fair bit of melting of snow required."

The going at Hexham is good but temperatures could reach -3C overnight at the Northumberland track and an 8am inspection has been called.

Hexham's clerk of the course James Armstrong said at 9.40am: "Walking the track now, the majority of areas are raceable and because it's been so dry, there's not loads of moisture in the ground. We'd probably have been fine racing today, but it's tonight's forecast that could be an issue.

"It's going to be a bit colder tonight with prolonged lower temperatures and it could be -2C or -3C, with temperatures not getting any higher than 2C tomorrow during the day. The forecasts are aligning to say we can expect that outlook, so we need to have a look."

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