Wetherby and Fakenham cards on Thursday under threat as temperatures plummet

Officials at Wetherby and Fakenham have announced inspections for their meetings on Thursday but said racing was unlikely to go ahead given the low temperatures that have already claimed Wednesday fixtures at Catterick and Hereford.

Turf courses around Britain spent Wednesday morning dealing with frozen tracks. Wetherby clerk of the course Jonjo Sanderson has lined up an 8am inspection, but said the likelihood of the meeting going ahead was low.

He said: "We were -4.5C last night so it's pretty cold today and frozen. We wouldn’t race today but it’s bright and sunny which is forecast all day, but only temperatures of about 2C which wouldn’t be enough to shift last night’s frost."

"I’d say the chances are slim if we don’t get rid of last night’s frost today and if we get more tonight. It’s going to be much warmer on Friday and the temperature could rise as early as tonight, so we’ve got ourselves a bit of a mixed bag."

Fakenham clerk of the course David Hunter has called for a 7am inspection on Thursday. He said: "At the moment, we would not be raceable. The big concern is we have forecast -5C tonight, and tomorrow we have cloud coming in at 9am which could restrict air temperatures to 2C. If we got that we would be really struggling.

"I’ve got a 7am inspection booked in for tomorrow in case they’ve got things wrong and it’s not as cold as anticipated. I couldn’t call it based solely on what is forecast, but if we do have that I think the decision will be made for racing to be cancelled. However, if it's not so cold and it's a bit more like this morning things could be different."

Weather conditions are expected to improve for Friday and officials at Doncaster and Huntingdon are confident the meetings will go ahead.

Racing is expected to go ahead as planned at Doncaster on FridayCredit: Julian Herbert (Getty Images)

Doncaster clerk of the course Roderick Duncan said: "Based on the forecast, we don't have any concern with temperatures expected to rise considerably. While some field ground has frozen, most of the track is fine and we are fairly confident things will go ahead."

Despite the threat of snow showers on Thursday, temperatures at Huntingdon are set to rise to 5C and will not drop below zero, giving clerk of the course Jack Pryor reason to be optimistic.

"The forecast is suggesting Friday will be a good bit warmer. As long as that is correct there shouldn't be an issue," he said.

No problems are anticipated at Cheltenham, which hosts festival trials day on Saturday, with temperatures expected to be above freezing from Thursday onwards.

The forecast for Saturday is a mild 8C with showers throughout the day, while the going is currently good to soft, good in places.

Clerk of the course Simon Claisse said: "Weather-wise we've had strong signals since Sunday, and look like being frost-free on Friday morning. We had a little bit of snow last night but that's no cause for concern.

"We're predicted to have 3-4mm of rain on Saturday morning which is likely to make the going easier than it is currently."

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