Newbury's Betfair Hurdle card could be rescheduled with Friday check needed

Officials at Newbury admit they face a struggle with the frost in order to stage Saturday's fixture headlined by the Betfair Hurdle, and alternative arrangements are already being discussed including hosting the fixture a week later.

The hope is the seven-race card, which is subject to an inspection at 8.30am on Friday, can be run in the same form either next Friday or Sunday, if able to attract ITV's terrestrial coverage. Otherwise a midweek slot is under consideration.

Those contingency plans are being considered following another night of sub-zero temperatures in West Berkshire, leaving the track frozen in places underneath frost covers.

Saturday cards

Clerk of the course Keith Ottesen said on Wednesday: "We've covered the track but it's frozen underneath. It's not unexpected as they only give a certain level of protection and it's a cumulative effect of night after night of frost.

"It'll be cold tonight and tomorrow morning, a little less on Friday morning but then it goes down to Friday night into Saturday morning about -3C to -4C and only around 0C in the day.

"We'll inspect on Friday but we'd need the situation to improve to give us a good chance of racing on Saturday. As it stands we're beginning to struggle but we'll give it time unless there's a major change."

The Betfair-sponsored seven-race card is headed by the £125,000 Betfair Hurdle. Also on the card, Altior is poised to run in the Game Spirit while Champ, Clan Des Obeaux and Lostintranslation are among the entries for the Denman Chase.

On potential plans to save the meeting, Ottesen added: "We're working on plans for some point next week, if not the following weekend. We need a few things to be aligned with everybody but we're very keen to restage the whole day.

"We want to rerun Saturday's fixture at Newbury in the next few days. We can't go on a Saturday but either side of that day might be palatable for ITV. If that isn't the case we can look at a midweek fixture.

"We'll want to get it on next week, as we don't want to plan to fail."

'Watch this space' with Warwick Saturday card

Warwick also races on Saturday with the card featuring the Grade 2 Agetur UK Kingmaker Novices' Chase. The outlook is more optimistic, although temperatures could drop to as low as -5C.

Jane Hedley, clerk of the course at Warwick, said on Wednesday: "We're raceable today. The frost covers went down yesterday and we had a frost of -1.8C overnight, but tonight is the coldest night we have forecast. We could get down to -3C at best, some are saying as low as -5C. It's very much 'watch this space'.

"We raced last Wednesday and the team has had a big job repairing the ground. What would normally take two days repairing took four days. We held off with the frost covers on Monday expecting to be covered with snow, so we were pleasantly surprised on Tuesday that we didn't have any laying snow.

"We're mulling over the timings of things, some of the areas out with the covers were frozen today. I'll see how they've behaved as to whether we call an inspection tomorrow morning or just see how it is and then take inspections from there."

Exeter's Sunday fixture looks set to avoid any trouble according to clerk of the course Daniel Cooper.

He said: "We're not viewing frost forecast on the weekend but we do think we'll stay frozen until Saturday. Looking at the forecast we should be defrosted by racing. It's an important card for us but we're optimistic with a positive weekend forecast."

Weather prospects for jumps meetings

Thursday

Doncaster
Cancelled due to frozen standing water and snow

Ffos Las
Cancelled due to frozen track

Kempton
Jumpers' bumpers card replacing Friday's cancelled jumps meeting to be run on all-weather track

Newcastle (AW)
Standard to slow, inspection 10am Thursday

Huntingdon
Cancelled due to waterlogging

Thurles
Soft (chase) and soft to heavy (hurdles)
Outlook: 7.30am inspection Thursday due to yellow weather warning of snow and ice. Fit to race at present. Situation continually being monitored.

Friday

Bangor
Cancelled (frozen track)

Chelmsford
Standard
Outlook: Covering of snow and sub-zero temperatures forecast.

Southwell
Standard to slow
Outlook: Remaining cold through to racing with temperatures to drop to -5C overnight. Sunny intervals Friday at 0C.

Saturday

Chelmsford
Standard
Outlook: Covering of snow and sub-zero temperatures forecast.

Lingfield
Standard
Outlook: Will struggle to rise above freezing all week. Wednesday evening will get down to -7C and currently -4C on Friday evening, with highs of 0C on raceday.

Newbury
Soft, frozen in places under frost covers. Inspection 8.30am Friday.

Warwick
Soft, heavy in places
Outlook: Colder from Tuesday with a decreasing chance of snow showers and some clear spells. Overnight lows of down to -3C and daytime highs of 2C, through to Saturday. With the decreasing risk of further snow, we will deploy frost covers later today if conditions allow.

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