Saturday racing programme hangs in the balance due to Storm Dennis

Racing faces a battle with Storm Dennis this weekend and nobody is sure how the odds stack up in a contest that could end up with a full programme or a couple of blank afternoons.

Saturday cards at Ascot, Haydock, Lingfield and Wincanton are subject to early-morning inspections, with high winds expected to create havoc across the country.

The latest forecast on Friday predicted mean wind speeds of 22mph during racing at Ascot with gusts in the 40s, but asked whether that would be enough to abandon the meeting clerk of the course Chris Stickels said: "Until they actually arrive one doesn't really know.

"Everything is very localised and it depends on what it actually does – if gusts aren't causing any damage and don't appear to be that uncomfortable then we will be fine. Until it arrives it's very difficult to predict."

The forecast is similar at Haydock, where clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright stressed the difficulty of making a decision well ahead of racing.

"We're all in the same situation, anxious to let people know what our circumstances are but equally anxious not to precipitately jump to the wrong conclusion," he said.

"I hope people have a degree of sympathy if we manage to miscall it, if we endeavour to go ahead and then the wind is worse than we have anticipated that we are capable of sustaining."

Kirkland Tellwright: 'I hope people have a degree of sympathy if we manage to miscall it'Credit: David Carr

A previous forecast of 60mph winds has been downgraded to 40mph at Wincanton, where raceday rain could also be an issue. Clerk of the course Daniel Cooper said: "We'll look at the live situation at 8am and also make a judgement on the expectation for the rest of the day.

"We have a duty of care to the public, the staff on site and the contractors, I can't be sheltered and just think of the horses."

Cooper is also clerk at Exeter, with its Sunday card subject to a 6pm inspection to assess the impact of rain forecast for Saturday.

Daniel Cooper: clerk of the course at Wincanton and ExeterCredit: David Carr

Sunday's cards at Kempton and Market Rasen hinge on raceday inspections, while chases at Carlisle on Monday have been scrapped and Tuesday's meeting at Bangor has already been called off.

No inspections have been called for Gowran on Saturday or Navan's meeting on Sunday, where Tiger Roll is due to star.

Saturday cards and betting

Get ahead of the game with Get Your Eye In - exclusive Saturday preview content on racingpost.com and the Racing Post mobile app from 2pm on Friday