Ayr cancels Wednesday's card as Fairyhouse and Bangor lose meetings due to waterlogging

Ayr's meeting on Wednesday has been cancelled after heavy rain left the track waterlogged.

An 11am inspection was called after the course was hit by 30mm of rain overnight and another 10mm fell from 8.30am to leave areas of standing water on the track.

However, with more rain forecast throughout Tuesday and into Wednesday, the seven-race card was scrapped.

Storm-ravaged Uttoxeter has been unable to stage any racing since October 8 and has switched to an all-hurdle card in a bid to restart its season at the track on Saturday.

The course failed an inspection on the chase course on Monday morning and has since altered the format to six hurdles races and a bumper.

The Staffordshire track has faced the brunt of both Storm Babet and Storm Ciaran in recent weeks and was forced to abandon its meeting on October 20, while its November 3 fixture was switched to Ffos Las.

The track recorded 173mm of rain through October, which was 70mm more than fell in the same period in 2022, and has had a further 41mm in November.

Heavy rain in Britain and Ireland has also caused the cancellation of fixtures at Fairyhouse on Tuesday and Bangor on Wednesday.

Fairyhouse was forced to call off Tuesday's seven-race card on Monday morning after receiving more rain than was forecast overnight.

Clerk of the course Brendan Sheridan said: "Following 20mm of rain overnight, which was more than was originally forecast for Fairyhouse, the track is now unfit for racing and the fixture scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled.

"We needed the rainfall to come up short of what was forecast but unfortunately we got slightly more and the track will not be raceable in time for tomorrow due to that volume of rain on ground that was already soft, heavy in places.

"We will liaise with Horse Racing Ireland about the possibility of rescheduling the fixture."

Wednesday's fixture at Bangor failed an inspection on Monday afternoon due to waterlogging.

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