No rain, no gain: Leicester fears for Sunday fixture as hard ground remains

The prospects of racing at Leicester on Sunday appear bleak after a month with barely a drop of rain on the heels of a drought-like summer.

The ground is hard in places on the hurdle and chase courses at the East Midlands track and officials at the course, who are not licensed to water the track from November through to April, have already called an inspection for 10am on Thursday morning to assess prospects, with only a little rain forecast before the weekend.

Hard is in the going description on both courses

The previous meeting at the track on November 19 was lost in similar circumstances and that fixture was switched to Hereford.

Last winter the track was forced to put on a number of all-hurdle cards as the chase course was considered too firm but the lack of rain could also threaten its next meeting on December 6.

There are showers forecast for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of this week but nothing of the calibre needed to change the going significantly.

The average rainfall for November in Leicester is 60mm but, speaking on Tuesday, clerk of the course Jimmy Stevenson said this year it had been insufficient to measure.

Stevenson said: "Unfortunately, we have had hardly any rain this month at all and we can't water as our licence to extract water from the brook here only goes up until October 31.

Leicester racecourse are a third down on their expected rainfall for this time of yearCredit: Lewis Porteous

"The dry summer has been a major issue and we needed a wet autumn, but the rain we've had hasn't really touched it. Half an inch isn't going to solve our problem.

"We're a third of our rainfall – approximately seven and a half inches – down on where we should be at this time of year. It's incredible because looking at all the other tracks it seems everyone else has had plenty of rain – Sandown had heavy going and they're only 100 miles away."

A Met spokesperson said on Tuesday: "There are spells of rain forecast for this evening with overnight rain into Thursday. There will be some drier intervals but it will be much milder at around 14C.

The BHA announced that two provisional hurdle races have been created for the card to take the place of the two chases scheduled if the chase course is deemed unraceable following the inspection.

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