Cheltenham's Trials day card set for Friday afternoon inspection

Officials at Cheltenham fear the forecast will need to be wrong in order to pass Friday's 2pm inspection, with the track waterlogged in places ahead of Saturday's Trials day fixture.

A total of 15mm of rain hit the Gloucestershire course on Wednesday night – far more than forecast – leaving patches of standing water in places and forcing the course to take out two fences.

The ground is officially described as heavy, with standing water in places, and with the forecast remaining unsettled and further rainfall due officials will assess track conditions on Friday before Saturday's fixture.

Cheltenham Trials day full card

Simon Claisse, clerk of the course at Cheltenham, said: "We'll need a lot of help from the weather in terms of the forecast being wrong and not getting as much rain as we're seeing in the forecast."

He added: "The ground is currently heavy, we had 15mm last night which is a lot more than we were expecting. Up until this morning we'd had as much rain as we were expecting before racing and there's more to come. We could get another 12mm tonight into tomorrow and then 10mm on Saturday morning. We were forecast 25mm for the week.

"At the moment we're raceable but we'll have to miss out a few fences – the first down the hill and the third-last – so we've announced a precautionary for 2pm tomorrow."

Saturday's meeting commences at 12.40 with four races on ITV, including Paisley Park's attempt to win a third consecutive Paddy Power Cleeve Hurdle, while Bristol De Mai, Native River and Santini could clash in the Paddy Power-backed Cotswold Chase.

Cheltenham’s New Year's Day fixture also fell victim to waterlogging, and Saturday's card is the track's only fixture scheduled before the festival.

'We're in fairly good order' – no problems for Doncaster

Doncaster is also set to stage three Grade 2s and the prestigious Sky Bet Handicap Chase on a bumper Saturday card and, unlike Cheltenham, officials at the track are not expecting the two-day fixture to come under threat.

The ground at the South Yorkshire course is currently soft ahead of the two-day meeting – which begins on Friday – following 12mm of rainfall in the past week, and clerk of the course Roderick Duncan is anticipating conditions will ease further throughout the fixture.

"We're in fairly good order at the moment," he told the Racing Post on Thursday. "We've had just a fraction over 12mm of rainfall in the last seven days and it had been drying back.

"We're currently soft and I expect that to ease a bit, certainly in places. We have a chance of rain tonight but not a significant amount and there will be more showers passing.

Roderick Duncan: 'I think soft, heavy in places is where I potentially see the ground being.'Credit: Edward Whitaker

"Friday is looking more settled, but on some forecasts there is a chance of some wintry showers on Saturday morning and at least one forecast had that as snow. It's a low chance at less than 50 per cent so we're not panicking over that, but we're seeing how the forecast develops.

"I consider there's a further chance of easing, it hangs on how accurate the current forecasts are and on them I think soft, heavy in places is where I potentially see the ground being."

Fontwell off as weather causes cancellations for Sunday and beyond

Fontwell's Sunday meeting has been cancelled after the track failed a 2pm inspection on Thursday with the course waterlogged and unraceable in places.

Uttoxeter's fixture on the same day has been switched to an all-hurdle card following the cancellation of the chases due to waterlogging, and two extra hurdles contests have been added. However, an inspection has still been called for 8am on Friday with some standing water on the hurdles track.

Meanwhile the BHA announced on Wednesday that Catterick will host an additional jumps fixture on the same day, just four days after the track lost its previous meeting.

A host of jumps cards have already fallen victim to the weather next week, with Tuesday's fixtures at Newcastle and Lingfield and Wednesday's card at Leicester all cancelled due to waterlogging.

In other changes, a jumpers' bumpers card has been announced for Lingfield on Monday, while Newcastle's abandoned card on Tuesday has been replaced with a jumpers' bumpers fixture at the same track.

Wolverhampton is to stage an additional Flat card on Sunday, with Kempton's Saturday meeting brought forward to a 2pm start.

Many tracks have been left waterlogged by the recent rainCredit: Edward Whitaker

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