'We might struggle' - Chepstow calls morning inspection for Welsh National card

Officials at Chepstow will wait until Sunday morning to give the green light to the course's flagship Coral Welsh National card as Storm Bella threatens to cause havoc to the festive racing schedule.

The storm is set to make landfall in Britain and Ireland on Saturday evening, with amber and yellow warnings already issues for parts of south Wales in anticipation of gale-force winds and heavy rainfall.

The ground at Chepstow is currently heavy but "raceable" according to clerk of the course Elizabeth O'Flaherty, who has called a 7.45am inspection on Sunday morning to assess conditions.

Chepstow: due significant rainfall in the run up to the Welsh Grand NationalCredit: Edward Whitaker

"We're currently raceable but with Storm Bella coming in tonight it depends entirely on how much rain we do end up getting," O'Flaherty said.

"We've got 15mm to 20mm forecast but we could get more or we could get less. The other day we were forecast 30mm and we ended up getting 65mm so it's tough to predict these things."

In the region of 100mm of rain has already fallen at Chepstow since Monday and O'Flaherty is concerned conditions may deteriorate further if the forecast is as bad as predicted.

She said: "I think if we got the top end of what's forecast we might struggle. That's why we've called the inspections for tomorrow morning but we would be able to race today if we needed to."

Fontwell's meeting on Monday has been already been cancelled with the track failing to show sufficient improvement after heavy rain left it waterlogged.

The course was unraceable on Saturday morning and is due to receive another deluge this evening thanks to Storm Bella.

Fontwell: off on MondayCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

Clerk of the course Philip Hide, said: "We've had over 95mm in the last two weeks. It's not at the stage where we'd be raceable today and the forecast is pretty grim with the potential for over an inch of rain in the next 24 hours.

"We've been concerned for the last few days. I was hoping it would improve and yesterday when we walked the course there was a bit of frost in the ground and it walked better then than it did this morning."

Hide is already looking ahead to Fontwell's next meeting on January 14, and added: "I would have loved to have been able to postpone the inspection to tomorrow but it's just unrealistic and you're not doing anyone any favours by doing that."

In Ireland, the ground at Limerick is already described as heavy and an inspection has been called for 8am on Sunday.

Weather warnings have been issued across ten counties and wind speeds are expected to exceed 100km per hour in some parts of the country.

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