Carlisle heading in right direction for Tuesday card but morning check needed

Tuesday's meeting at Carlisle must pass an inspection at 8am on raceday morning with some of the track still frozen following an initial check on Monday afternoon.

Racing was decimated across Britain last week due to heavy snowfall and frost from Storm Darcy, but temperatures are expected to rise significantly from Monday, with Warwick and Newbury's high-quality weekend cards rescheduled to Monday and Sunday.

Carlisle did not escape the elements with temperatures reaching as low as -10C on consecutive days, and while most of the ground is raceable, some frozen areas remain and officials will assess conditions once again in the morning.

Tuesday cards

Clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright said: "It's made a lot of progress and quite a lot of the track is fit for racing, but some areas are not and we'll have to inspect again.

"I'm optimistic we'll race and I believe we will do so, but it'll be up to the trainers' discretion whether they want to run their horses and it's entirely understandable if they don't want to."

Testing conditions remain as thaw begins

The thaw from last week's poor weather has begun across Britain, leaving racecourses with improved conditions ahead of meetings later this week but testing ground is set to remain.

Tuesday's other jumps meeting at Catterick remains soft, frozen in places, but conditions are set to improve with temperatures rising to as high as 11C on raceday.

Conditions for both jumps meetings on Wednesday are now raceable, with Hereford described as soft and Wetherby – which has lost its last two fixtures – as soft, heavy in places with a thaw in process, while the snow has nearly disappeared from the track at Kelso ahead of its classy fixture on Friday.

Ascot clerk of the course Chris Stickels: 'It's thawing and we're expecting 20mm of rainfall through the week so I anticipate that it will be a mixture of soft and heavy.'Credit: Mark Cranham

A high-class weekend of action is headlined by the Grade 1 Ascot Chase and Ascot's clerk of the course Chris Stickels anticipates the ground to be a mixture of soft and heavy come raceday.

"We are soft, heavy in places and frozen in places currently and you wouldn't race on it right now, we haven't really been able to assess it as it has been rock hard." he said on Monday. "But there are milder temperatures forecast this week and we've been above freezing since fairly early on Sunday.

"It's thawing and we're expecting 20mm of rainfall through the week so I anticipate that it will be a mixture of soft and heavy through the weekend."

Weather prospects

Tuesday

Carlisle
Heavy, frozen in places
Outlook: Inspection 8am Tuesday.

Catterick
Soft, frozen in places with a one inch snow covering
Outlook: Temperatures rising slowly through Sunday with the chance of light rain/sleet. Monday milder.

Kempton
Standard to slow

Newcastle
Standard to slow
Outlook: course to be ripped up before racing. Milder on Monday and Tuesday.

Wednesday

Hereford
Soft
Outlook: Milder with showers during the week

Kempton
Standard to slow

Wetherby
Soft, heavy in places,
Outlook: A rise in temperature through to 10C-12C is expected. Rain is forecast on Sunday night.

Wolverhampton
Standard

Thursday

Chelmsford
Standard
Outlook: Unsettled with rain at times. Wednesday dry. Thursday light rain 10C

Fontwell
Heavy
Outlook: Band of rain pushing in with warmer air. Expected to be drier from Wednesday

Leicester
Heavy
Outlook: Monday onwards milder with rain at times

Sandown
Soft, heavy in places on chase course, heavy, soft in places on hurdles course
Outlook: forecasts indicating milder temperatures with rain around from Sunday to Wednesday (8-12mm in total)

Friday

Fakenham
Soft, heavy in places, four inches of snow on whole track
Outlook: Warms up from Monday with some light rain and day temperatures of 7C on Tuesday with no freezing nights. Snow should thaw but will leave testing ground

Kelso
Heavy, snow nearly disappeared
Outlook: Monday is cold with sunny spells and high of 9C, Tuesday dry and bright with high of 10C, Wednesday mix of sunshine and rain and high of 9C

Lingfield
Standard
Outlook: 5mm rain in past 24 hours

Southwell
Standard
Outlook: Much improved and settled forecast for the week ahead

Saturday

Ascot
Soft, heavy in places, still frozen in places but thawing
Outlook: Much milder this week with rain/showers forecast through to Friday. Saturday looks dry at present

Haydock
Frozen, heavy in places
Outlook: Cold spell replaced by milder wetter weather. The end of next week looks dry with temperatures just above zero

Lingfield
Standard

Newcastle
Standard to slow

Wincanton
Heavy
Outlook: Showers daily, Friday heaviest

Sunday

Market Rasen
Soft
Outlook: Sunny spells and feeling milder again on Saturday, with highs of 14C

Newbury
Good to soft, soft in places
Outlook: Temperatures rising to 11C from Monday, possibly warmer next weekend

Uttoxeter
Frozen, heavy when last thawed
Outlook: Rain looking likely on Wednesday, next weekend currently forecast to be milder with light rain overnight into Sunday

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