Wolverhampton's evening meeting passes inspection but Newcastle cancelled

Wolverhampton's evening meeting successfully passed an inspection to ensure there will not be a blank day of action in Britain and Ireland on Wednesday, but the day's other scheduled all-weather card at Newcastle has been cancelled due to snow as the after-effects of Storm Darcy continue to cause major disruption to race meetings across Britain.

Newcastle was set to host a seven-race afternoon card, but the course was blanketed with a dusting of snow through the night as well as experiencing sub-zero temperatures as low as -5C.

With persistent snowfall since 2.30am, officials were forced into an 8am check and were due to reassess conditions at 10am, but further snowfall and more flurries before racing left the track unraceable.

Clerk of the course James Armstrong said: "We had false hope when the sun came out for half an hour before another fairly heavy hail and snowstorm came through again. It's snowing again right now and temperatures haven't risen enough.

"We needed it to be warmer to get the snow out of the surface and it's not safe for racing on I'm afraid. On certain things you cannot beat nature, even on an all-weather track."

Wednesday's racecard

There was better news for Wednesday's evening meeting at Wolverhampton, with the course passing a morning inspection with the first race due off at 4.45pm.

The track had unexpected snowfall during the night and into this morning, with temperatures as low as -5c, but the snow has been cleared off the course and is raceable. The going is currently standard.

Clerk of the course Fergus Cameron said: ""We're very pleased, we always try to go ahead if we can but we just got caught out a bit by the unforeseen snow, however the track has responded well and it's a huge relief we can be staging racing."

No jumps racing in Britain until Saturday with Ffos Las frozen off, Thurles to inspect

There will be no jumps racing staged in Britain before Saturday at the earliest after Ffos Las's Thursday card was cancelled on Wednesday morning due to a frozen track.

Clerk of the course Dai Jones said: "We've had to pull stumps as the vulnerable area that we had that got wear and tear last week was covered but the frost had got under it. There's no improvement in the forecast and won't get above freezing until after 11am tomorrow morning. It wouldn't have improved sufficiently early enough to go ahead.

"We were very fortunate to have the milder air that we did earlier this week and we hoped it would help, but unfortunately our luck ran out. We did as much as we could."

Ffos Las joins Carlisle, Ludlow, Plumpton, Fontwell, Sedgefield, Huntingdon, Kempton and Bangor as British meetings all to fall foul of the weather this week.

Thursday's jumps meeting in Ireland at Thurles must pass a 7.30am inspection on raceday due to a threat of snow and ice.

The track is set to stage a seven-race card beginning at 1.45pm, but a yellow weather warning of snow and ice has forced officials into a morning check. The course was raceable on Wednesday with the going described as soft on the chase track, and soft to heavy on the hurdles and bumper track.

Weather prospects for jumps meetings

Wednesday

Fairyhouse
Cancelled due to waterlogging (inside track)

Fontwell
Cancelled due to waterlogging

Ludlow
Cancelled due to frozen track

Sedgefield
Cancelled due to waterlogging

Newcastle
Cancelled due to snow

Wolverhampton
Standard
Outlook: Inspection passed. The sun is out now with the forecast temperature rising to 2C with the chance of the odd isolated snow shower around midday

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
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
Outlook: Remaining cold for the rest of the week with overnight low temperatures down to -4/-5C and daytime hights of 0/1C.

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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