Leicester's frustrating winter continues after loss of sixth meeting in nine

Course officials at Leicester have spoken of their deep frustration over the past four months after the track lost its sixth meeting from its last nine fixtures on Tuesday.

Temperatures dipped to -4C for a third night in a row on Monday night and forced the latest cancellation that caps a testing period for the East Midlands track.

It began in October when the final two Flat meetings of the season were lost to a waterlogged track, which also claimed the first two jumps fixtures in November and December.

Racing went ahead for the other three fixtures in December, including the Silver Fox Handicap Chase day when two races were televised on ITV4 – thought to be the first time in 40 years that jumping from the course had been aired by the broadcaster.

However, Leicester's fortunes have taken a turn for the worse again recently with waterlogging ensuring the cancellation of the January 9 meeting and frozen ground forcing the same fate for Tuesday’s fixture.

Leicester's winter of woe

October 15 cancelled
October 28 cancelled
November 18 cancelled
December 1 cancelled
December 5
December 11
December 28
January 9 cancelled
January 21 cancelled

Clerk of the course Jimmy Stevenson said on Tuesday: “It’s driving me mad as we’d be perfectly okay to race tomorrow. We’d have been fine if we’d have had cloud cover during the night, but it stayed clear and the clouds are only just starting to come over now.

“Temperatures went down to -4C last night, so that’s three nights of -4C on the bounce, and it’s just really annoying.”

The yearly rainfall average in Leicester is 24 inches, but last year 38.5 inches hit the course and its effects continue to prove problematic.

Leicester: next meeting is on January 29Credit: Edward Whitaker

Stevenson said: “The moisture in the ground from all the rainfall last year means it freezes really quickly and that’s exaggerated the situation.

“I have known a winter like this before and you could tell it might be a tricky winter ahead as the ground was so wet in the autumn. I’m not too surprised but we’ve had so many easy winters in the last ten years that this is a proper old winter.

“We’re losing meetings on the bounce at the moment and that’s very frustrating even if it is out of your hands.

"It has a big impact on the financial side but you just have to carry on as you can’t do a lot about it unfortunately.”

The track, where racing is next set to take place on Wednesday week, is advertising for a new general manager after Rob Bracken left earlier this month, following six years in the role, to relocate to Kent.

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