Sandown's Imperial Cup card on Saturday 'has a fighting chance' of beating latest cold snap

Hopes are rising that Sandown's Betfair Imperial Cup (2.25) card can beat the weather, although frost has now replaced the state of the ground as the chief obstacle to overcome.

Clerk of the course Andrew Cooper was in more positive mood on Thursday afternoon about the prospects for racing on Saturday, although he expects the meeting will need to pass a Saturday morning inspection in the wake of forecast -2C temperatures on Friday night.

Cooper had described the course as unraceable in a few spots on Thursday morning, thanks to a combination of snow and rain, with the going described as soft, heavy in places.

But with little in the way of precipitation during the day, Cooper is close to finalising plans to use the best available racing lines.

Cooper said: "I'd be a bit more positive about the situation, having found solutions for most of the worst areas. We've had further rain but as expected, no significant volumes. We're up to about 3-4 millimetres and there could be a bit more later in the day and tomorrow morning.

"But after a deteriorating day things have stabilised. You would have been unraceable today."

Cooper added: "We've also got to keep an eye on frost going from Friday night into Saturday morning. I'm seeing temperatures on -2C up to a daytime of 6-7C."

Andrew Cooper: "It's been a volatile week in terms of forecasts and what's actually happened"Credit: Edward Whitaker

Groundstaff will cover vulnerable areas including the home straight in front of Sandown's towering grandstand as well as the takeoff and landing areas at each hurdle and fence.

But the wet turf means that using vehicles is not on the cards, making it impractical to cover the entire track.

"I'd be hopeful that would see us through with the range of temperatures we're expecting," said Cooper. "That in turn is likely to prompt an inspection on Saturday morning. At the moment I don't think I'll take an early look on Friday.

"With a frost forecast, whatever we said on Friday, we'd have to come back and look again Saturday morning.

"It's been a volatile week in terms of forecasts and what's actually happened. We've definitely got a fighting chance."

Horse Racing Ireland has rescheduled Thursday's lost meeting at Thurles for next Monday, March 13, with fresh declarations now due on Saturday morning.

More immediately Ayr, Leicester and Wolverhampton will inspect on Friday morning ahead of their meetings that afternoon. Officials at Leicester will inspect at 7.30am, while Ayr and Wolverhampton are subject to 8am calls.

Ayr is also due to race on Saturday, with the west of Scotland facing a yellow weather warning for snow, while Hereford will inspect at 9.30 on Friday ahead of Saturday's meeting, with snow rendering it unraceable on Thursday. There are no anticipated problems for Exeter on Saturday.

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