Cold weather forces abandonments of Thursday cards at Carlisle and Thurles - Wincanton and Southwell go ahead

Thursday afternoon's racing programme in Britain and Ireland has been cut in half following the abandonment of jumps fixtures at Carlisle and Thurles due to the cold weather. However, after inspections at Wincanton and Southwell, racing goes ahead at those courses.

Carlisle's seven-race card was cancelled because of frost in some areas of the ground. It dropped to as low as -5C at the Cumbrian track last night and the course crossings, with a thinner grass covering, were the areas worst impacted by the frost.

Kirkland Tellwright, clerk of the course at Carlisle, said this morning: "It's only a small proportion of the track which is frozen and we're just not going to get there. The vast majority of the track is fit to race, you just have those areas which are short of grass and the frost nailed those. We've had a bit of frost the last few nights which hasn't helped because the soil temperatures are colder each time."

At Thurles, the course failed a 7.30am inspection because of snow overnight. It reached 1C this morning at the County Tipperary venue and was expected to only rise to 4C by 2pm. The fixture has been rescheduled for Monday with fresh declarations to be made on Saturday morning.

Clerk of the course Lorcan Wyer said: "Following snow overnight, Thurles is now unfit for racing. There was the prospect of some warmer air coming in today but that seems to be much later in the afternoon now. We have been left with no choice."

The news means Wincanton will be the only venue set to host jump racing this afternoon, but the ground has changed significantly to good to soft from good, good to firm in places. It comes following a wet 24 hours in Somerset, with rain overnight helping to clear the snow that had covered the track on Wednesday.

Wincanton: yesterday's snow covering has now disappeared

Wincanton's clerk of the course Dan Cooper said: "A lot of work has gone into this meeting so I'm really pleased. We've gone good to soft after rainfall overnight; yesterday's snow has entirely thawed.

"We're happy with the ground being a lot slower than last week, that's come from irrigation on Monday and the rain and snow since. We feel it's good to soft but it might just be a bit slower than that. We'll review it after a couple of races."

The all-weather track at Southwell was also deemed raceable this morning for a seven-race card which starts at 1.15pm. The forecast snow did not come overnight but up to 2cm could arrive before racing and officials are monitoring conditions.

"We had no snow overnight which we forecast, it was just rain and sleet, but we're forecast it this morning," said clerk Richard Aldous. "It depends which forecast you look at, but speaking to my forecasters we're expecting 1-2cm of snow. That shouldn't be an issue."

Inspections have already been confirmed before racing on Friday, with Leicester to check at 7.30am and Ayr at 8am due to the threat of snow and sub-zero temperatures overnight. 

On Saturday, Woverhampton will stage an 8am inspection, while Hereford will check an hour and a half later at 9.30am.

Read tipping for Thursday's racing:

Paul Kealy has two strong fancies for Thursday's racing - and his tips are free to read 

The Punt Acca: Liam Headd's three horse racing tips on Thursday afternoon 

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