Newbury faces anxious wait with snow threat

AN indifferent forecast for Newbury left Saturday's meeting odds against to go ahead on Betfair on Thursday night.

With some snow possible in the area, punters are of the belief that the meeting will fall to the weather and at 6.30pm on Thursday night it was 4-7 to be abandoned and 11-10 to go ahead.

A met office spokeswoman said: "They are on the edge of any snow overnight with temperatures of -2/3C.

"Then it will be dry and clear [Friday and Saturday], with very little wind on Saturday and temperatures around 1C."

The ground at Newbury was described as good to soft on Thursday afternoon and clerk of the course Richard Osgood was pleased with what he saw when he took a look under the covers which have been in place on the track since January 31.

"I am walking the course at the minute and it is superb," said Osgood. "We have snow coming in tonight and that is the one thing that is worrying me more than anything else.

"We are forecast between 2cm and 6cm of snow, it could be more it could be less, and a lot depends on how it lies."