'I feel sorry for them' - Fakenham's near £70,000 card attracts just 36 runners

Olly Murphy, the leading trainer at Fakenham over the last five seasons, has expressed sympathy for the Norfolk track with Tuesday’s near £70,000 seven-race card attracting just 36 runners.

There are two four-runner races and three five-runner contests with the going described as good, good to soft in places. The continued dry spell is seen as a major contributory factor by Murphy and the track’s chief executive David Hunter.

Small fields are an industry-wide concern, with two- or three-runner races at Hereford, Taunton, Cheltenham, Wetherby and Plumpton in the past week, while no meeting in Britain this week has a going description of soft or worse.