Five meetings in Britain cancelled with temperatures of up to 40C forecast

Five race meetings in Britain on Monday and Tuesday have been cancelled because of the forecast for extreme high temperatures.

Monday’s fixtures at Beverley and Windsor will not go ahead and neither will Tuesday’s at Chelmsford, Southwell and Wolverhampton after the BHA yesterday took the decision to call off the cards after the Met Office issued a red weather warning for extreme heat for the first time.

Record temperatures of up to 40C are forecast on Monday and Tuesday with Britain remaining in the grip of a prolonged spell of hot and dry weather, prompting the Met Office to issue the red weather warning for large parts of central, northern, eastern and south-eastern England.

The areas covered by the warnings include the five courses where racing has been cancelled. The Met Office said the heat has the potential to cause “population-wide adverse health effects, leading to serious illness and danger to life.

It urged "substantial changes in working practices and daily routine" to manage the impact of the conditions, along with limiting travel where possible.

Richard Wayman, chief operating officer at the BHA, said: “The BHA’s number one priority in the staging of any meeting is the wellbeing of all involved, human and equine.

“Following the issuing of the first ever extreme heat warning by the Met Office, we are taking sensible precautions and have made a decision as soon as possible to provide certainty for those affected.”

Richard Wayman: 'The wellbeing of all involved, human and equine, is the priority'

Three of the five courses impacted are operated by Arena Racing (Arc), which had initially moved Tuesday's jumps meeting forward to 10am from 1pm in an attempt to mitigate against the soaring temperatures.

However, Mark Spincer, managing director of Arc’s racing division, said: “We fully support the decision to abandon the fixtures scheduled to take place on our racecourses on Monday and Tuesday.

“We have been in close dialogue with colleagues at the BHA throughout this period of warmer weather and have been operating with a number of resources in place to assist horses and people working on our racecourses.

"Whilst we had taken steps to mitigate against the higher temperatures initially forecast for Monday and Tuesday, including moving Southwell’s race times to earlier in the day, the latest updates from the Met Office and the alerts issued made it clear that it was within the best interests of all concerned to abandon.

“We'll be in touch with all customers who had bookings to these race meetings shortly, and our thanks goes to the BHA team for acting swiftly in changing circumstances.”

Beverley had brought in extra measures for Monday's meeting, including additional veterinary provision on site, dedicated horse-cooling staff and the potential for using the shaded pre-parade ring instead of the main paddock.

In response to the decision to call racing off, chief executive Sally Iggulden said: "It needed a decision. We could have kept waiting and monitoring but everyone needs to make plans for staff and travel. This is purely a welfare decision and it was as well to follow government advice, which isn't to travel.

"At this stage it's the right decision – all we can do is follow official expert advice on what the forecast is: even if the temperature drops a little bit, it's still going to be extremely hot."

Stratford has already changed race times for its meeting on Sunday, when Newton Abbot is confident it will cope with temperatures that are not forecast to rise above 26C. A total of 35 horses were declared for seven races at Stratford, while 38 are set to line up in seven races at Newton Abbot, continuing a worrying trend of small field sizes.

The heat is not expected to be as severe on Saturday, when Market Rasen will have an additional covered washdown area to go with its permanent equine cooling fans.

Racing in Britain is scheduled to still go ahead at Ayr and Cartmel on Monday and at Musselburgh on Tuesday.

An amber weather warning for heat is in place for Cartmel, where temperatures are forecast to peak at 26C, and clerk of the course Anthea Leigh said: "We're in conversation with Sally Taylor from the veterinary department of the BHA and we've raced well in the temperatures the Met Office are showing during racing.

"We will continue to monitor the situation and see whether we have to do anything like bring race times earlier but at the moment we'll stick with arrangements as they are."

The heat is predicted to have no adverse effects on the Irish racing programme over the coming days, with the Curragh and Tipperary hosting fixtures over the weekend before a meeting at Ballinrobe on Monday, when temperatures are expected to peak at 29C.

Ballinrobe manager John Flannelly said: "Monday is going to be warm but it should be fine as we're racing in the evening. There'll be plenty of water for the horses post-race and we have seven wash-bay areas in the yard as well - we're well equipped."

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