Newbury's Friday card abandoned due to waterlogged track and Leicester cancels Monday's Flat fixture

The first of Newbury's two-day Flat meeting will not go ahead on Friday after the seven-race card was abandoned on Thursday morning due to parts of the track still being waterlogged.

13mm of rain on Wednesday had left the track waterlogged between the seven-furlong and mile starts on the home straight with the going described as heavy. A further 3.8mm fell overnight and, with the track still waterlogged and further showers forecast, the meeting was abandoned. 

An inspection will be held at 2pm on Friday to determine whether Saturday's card, which is due to feature a couple of Group 3s including the BetVictor St Simon Stakes, at the Berkshire venue can go ahead.

"At the moment we're obviously not raceable," clerk of the course George Hill said on Thursday morning. "We've had further rain overnight. We've got about 48 hours and a kind of unknown forecast of showers. We've got to give it a bit of a chance with 48 hours to go so we've pencilled in an inspection for two o'clock tomorrow afternoon.

"It's probably the sensible thing to do and see how the track is and what improvement there is from today through to tomorrow. We'll make a decision tomorrow based on what rain we've had or haven't had and how the track has improved.

Clonmel's jumps fixture on Thursday goes ahead after passing a raceday inspection. Clerk of the course Lorcan Wyer said on Thursday morning: "We had 14mm of rain overnight on Monday before declarations but thankfully the subsequent rain that was forecast didn't transpire. There was just 1mm of rain last night at the track."

The going is heavy with a forecast of sunny spells with some scattered showers.

Leicester off on Monday

Leicester has cancelled Monday's Flat fixture due to false ground and more rain forecast at the East Midlands track.

Doncaster confident for the weekend despite start of mile round course being unraceable

The prospect of racing at Doncaster has been boosted following drying conditions on Wednesday, with officials at the track not expecting any issues before the two-day Town Moor meeting starting on Friday, despite areas on the mile round course being unraceable.

The going at the track on Wednesday was described as heavy after 9mm of rain on Tuesday, but the prospect of racing on Friday and Saturday, when it is due to host the Group 1 Kameko Futurity Trophy (2.45), now looks promising.

Doncaster: due to host the Group 1 Kameko Futurity Trophy on SaturdayCredit: Edward Whitaker

Speaking on Wednesday, clerk of the course Paul Barker said: "Given the forecast, if it's all correct, we're envisioning no problems. We had 9mm of rain yesterday and it stopped raining about 6pm, so we've been dry overnight and it's been a nice and bright morning. It's cloudy now, but we're forecast to stay dry for the rest of today.

"We're expected to have showers between 5-6am tomorrow and that will probably be around for a couple of hours, but not of any real quantity. The rest of Thursday should remain dry and we might get light showers on Friday."

There has, however, been a slight change to Friday's card as the two handicaps (4.05 and 4.37) over a mile on the round course have been switched to the straight mile course due to waterlogged ground on the chute of the round course's mile start.

The 1m2f handicap (5.11) on the round course will go ahead as planned, with rail movements allowing the impacted parts of the course to be avoided.

Barker said: "We had an area of waterlogged ground about 50 yards outside the start of the round mile races up the chute, so it was highlighted to the BHA that we might struggle in that area.

"We switched them from being round mile races to straight mile races purely because I don't think that area would have dried out in time and it was only just in front of the stalls, so the change was easy to do.

"We're also railing a strip off down the home straight so that we can get a little bit of fresh ground for Saturday too."

Two Uttoxeter fixtures moved

The BHA has announced that two of Uttoxeter's fixtures in November and December have been transferred to Ffos Las due to the impact of adverse weather on the course.

The request was made by Arena Racing Company (Arc) in order to allow Uttoxeter sufficient recovery time as a result of the recent storm. Therefore, its fixtures on November 3 and December 12 have been moved away from the track.

Mark Spincer, managing director at Arc, said: "General weather conditions over the past few months, along with the more recent heavy rainfall, have impacted on the track at Uttoxeter. The undulating nature of the racetrack, along with the high water levels locally, mean that there are certain areas which require more remedial work post racing than others.

"To this end, we have taken the decision to move these two upcoming fixtures, so that the Uttoxeter track has adequate recovery time between upcoming fixtures. These moves create two breaks ahead of the Christmas period, which will allow the Uttoxeter grounds team, working with our retained agronomist, time to undertake remedial work on those specific areas of the track."

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