Fear not! Wetherby confident wet weekend won't stop Charlie Hall meeting

Course officials at Wetherby are confident next weekend's Charlie Hall meeting will go ahead despite the track's back straight being underwater on Saturday.

The two-day bet365 meeting next Friday and Saturday is the track's biggest event of the season, but heavy rain has forced the track's internal drainage dykes to burst their banks.

With a dry week forecast, Wetherby's clerk of the course Jonjo Sanderson has no worries about cancellation, a fate suffered by cards at Doncaster and Newbury on Saturday.

He said: "At this stage I'm not concerned. We're only six days away so if the forecast is right, and the drainage works as it should, then things should be fine by Wednesday.

"It's stopped raining now fortunately but we've had between 40-45mm in the last day. We're not that much higher than river level so when we get that much volume, the river rises and the drainage and the dykes that take the rain to river fill up – we're in that situation where it all backs up and has nowhere to go.

"But in a few days the river level will drop and the drainage will flow through so I'd think it should be all gone in the next few days."

Wetherby have also been quick to react to England's heroic Rugby World Cup semi-final victory over New Zealand by arranging bars to show Saturday's final.

"We'll open up early and will have some bars open for anyone who comes early, added Sanderson. "Fingers crossed England can go and win it!"

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