Cheltenham Saturday card abandoned

Cheltenham has lost the battle to stage Saturday's December Gold Cup card after the Temperatures dipped to -5 overnight and forced the course to abandon.

Groundstaff on Friday had faced a race against time to put down 40 acres of frost covers before the temperature dropped below freezing after Friday's card to give racing the best chance of going ahead on Saturday.

With the help of external company Sports & Stadia, the team spent five hours putting down covers on Wednesday and a further three hours removing them on Friday after temperatures dropped to -7.6C.

The track survived inspections at 7.30am and 10.30am but the hard work resumed straight after the final race, with a team of 65 people rushing to put down the covers again as the temperature dropped. There is a 7.30am inspection on Saturday and the forecast was for a low of -4C overnight.

Following the third race, clerk of the course Jon Pullin said: "The team are geared up and, as soon as we can, we'll start redeploying the frost covers. The real key to this will be how quickly we can get them back on the track before the temperature drops below zero.

"The forecast suggests it will drop fairly quickly once the sun goes in, so it's going to be a challenge, but we'll do everything we can. The forecast is for -4C, with temperatures slow to rise in the morning.

The scene at Cheltenham on Friday evening as frost covers are laid downCredit: Edward Whitaker

"There may be some mist and fog around first thing, which won't help with the temperatures. It should take between three to four hours to get the covers down this evening. Provided we can get them down fairly quickly, hopefully we'll be in a good position."

Reflecting on the effort to stage racing on Friday, Pullin added: "It was a mammoth task to get to the position we're in and huge credit must go to the team here. They have worked phenomenally hard during the last ten days, firstly to get enough water on the course to provide safe ground before we had to put down all the frost covers.

"We've used the services of Sports & Stadia, which had a huge team here on Wednesday, and thankfully we got the covers down in time. The first deployment is always the slowest as you need the covers in the right place and that took around five hours.

"They brought an even bigger team this morning to remove the covers and redeploy them tonight. I was really hopeful with the way the forecast was looking and luckily it's paid off. This week has thrown everything at us. We had to water on Tuesday and thankfully we've ended up with good ground and a six-race card today."

Harry Skelton, after riding Hidden Heroics to win the novice limited handicap chase, praised the efforts to keep the racing show on the road.

He said: "The staff in racing are like no other. They do it because they love the horses, like us all. It’s as simple as that."

On the surface, he added: "It's good ground but a little bit on the dead side. The team have done a fantastic job, well done to them."

Cheltenham Saturday card

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