Fakenham in with 'a sporting chance' of saving Sunday's ITV Racing card but calls Saturday inspection

Officials at Fakenham think they have "a good sporting chance" of staging races on terrestrial TV for the first time in decades on Sunday, but must survive an inspection Saturday due to frost.

The Norfolk track lost its popular New Year’s Day fixture to Southwell this year and suffered a sorry start to 2024 when its meeting the following day was called off due to safety concerns, with the jockeys and horses for the first race already in the parade ring.

Temperatures got down to -5C at the track on Wednesday night with a light dusting of snow and the same was expected on Thursday night, but it is then forecast to warmer at the weekend with mild air expected to rush in on Saturday and Sunday.

However, a 3pm inspection on Saturday has been called after temperatures dipped to -4C on Thursday night. The going is currently good to soft, but the track remains frozen in places.

Whether the warmer weather arrives in time is the key issue for clerk of the course David Hunter, with the mares' handicap hurdle (2.40) and veterans' handicap chase (3.15) from the seven-race card booked for ITV3 coverage.

Hunter has worked at the track for nearly three decades and Sunday's card would be the first to get terrestrial coverage during his tenure.

Fakenham last raced on December 19 and Hunter said: "We're keen to get it on as we’ve had such a poor season weather-wise and also because our two main races are on ITV, which will be nice. I've been at the track for 27 years and we've never had ITV or Channel 4 coverage in that time.

"I think it was on the old ITV7, something like 30 years ago, which was the last time there was a terrestrial race broadcast from Fakenham."

Clerk of the course David Hunter at Fakenham with his dogs Harvey and Apollo

Speaking on Thursday morning, Hunter was hopeful a warmer front on Saturday will prove a much-needed thaw. He said: "We're frozen at the moment and we were down to -4C to -5C here last night and it will probably be the same tonight. We've had a light snow shower and it's cold today but not so much tomorrow, although I think we will have some sort of frost on Friday night.

"On Saturday, I'm banking on the warm weather coming in to take the frost out of the ground and again on Sunday when we're forecast 8-10 degrees, but it depends on timings."

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