Friday raceday not to blame for abandonment says Pullin despite criticism

Cheltenham's clerk of the course Jon Pullin has defended the decision to race on Friday amid criticism that taking frost covers off for the first of the two-day International meeting jeopardised the chances of conditions being raceable on Saturday.

Temperatures dipped as low as -5C in the early hours of Saturday morning and the track was still frozen despite 40 acres worth of frost-covering across the course. It took three hours to put the covers back on in a "mammoth effort" from the Cheltenham team after the final race on Friday. At that point the temperature was already at 0C.

Racing took place on Friday following a second inspection, with the Dahlbury Handicap Chase the only Class 1 on the card. Meanwhile Saturday's card included the Grade 2 International Hurdle, Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle and prestigious December Gold Cup.

As it stands, no decision on rescheduling those races has been made, while Doncaster encountered an identical issue, having raced on Friday but being left unable to stage a weekend card.

The Cheltenham management has since been criticised, with Carl Hinchy, part-owner of leading December Gold Cup fancy Fugitif, hitting out on Twitter: "Very poor management from Cheltenham prioritising the poor Friday card ahead of the big Saturday meeting. Surely sacrificing Friday's card or transferring a couple of races to the Saturday card would have been the sensible route to take?"

Jon Pullin surveys the course following the abandonment of racing due to frostCredit: Edward Whitaker

Trainer Christian Leech added: "I think everyone would agree we're not short of moderate racing in Britain. It therefore seems extraordinary Cheltenham and Doncaster would guarantee abandoning Graded cards so that two very ordinary meetings could go ahead the day before."

Pullin insisted there was no guarantee Saturday's card would have taken place if Friday's had not. The weekend's meeting was abandoned 20 minutes before an inspection was due at 7.30am with ground frozen across the track.

He explained on Saturday morning: "What we need to bear in mind is that even if we didn't race on Friday, this was another consecutive night of frost and there would've been no guarantee that we would've got today on. That consecutive night impact has certainly been felt.

"The teams were straight on to getting the course covered after the last race on Friday. Temperatures were already at 0C at the time of the last and then dropped to -1C and -2C as the redeployment of the covers were taking place.

"It was a huge effort from the team to ensure that we got the course fully covered in just under three hours. Temperatures then dropped and were consistently -4C from midnight onwards and dipped to a low of -5C. Unfortunately the frost has caught the ground underneath so we're not in a position to race.

"It's a big disappointment and the team are gutted. It was a mammoth effort on Friday to get racing on and to get the covers down afterwards. We're all gutted, but the frost has beaten us this time."

Leading trainers Joe Tizzard and Nigel Twiston-Davies supported Pullin's decision to stage racing when the track was fit to do so.

"They did their best to race," said Tizzard. "I was there for the sales on Friday and we didn't have any runners. I've seen people saying they should've saved it for Saturday, but you never know how the weather is going to turn out. You can't rely on it."

Twiston-Davies said: "It's disappointing as we had some nice chances, but that's life. They did the best they could. I don't know what we'll do now, I can't see an end to this cold snap which is a worry."

Cheltenham ensured the catering did not go to waste following the abandonment. Around £10,000 worth of food set to be consumed on Saturday was instead donated to three local foodbanks.

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