'There's not much prospect of it going ahead' - midweek fixtures in doubt

Exeter and Newbury have admitted the chances of their fixtures going ahead in the week already seem bleak as freezing temperatures in Britain and Ireland look set to cause more major disruption to racing.

The current cold snap means just three cards took place at the weekend, with notably the second day of Cheltenham's December meeting on Saturday and Punchestown's John Durkan Chase card on Sunday both lost.

There will be no jumps meetings in Britain on Monday with Market Rasen and Plumpton cancelling their fixtures, while Lingfield passed a 7.30am inspection on Monday and Wolverhampton must do the same at 10.00am.

The weather will continue to cause disruption later in the week with Wincanton's fixture on Tuesday already cancelled, as is Catterick's fixture on the same day.

Officials at Newbury will check the course at midday on Monday for Wednesday's card, while Exeter's meeting on Thursday must survive an inspection at midday on Tuesday, with sleet and snow forecast in the coming days.

The ground at Newbury is currently good but parts of the track are frozen underneath the frost covers and clerk of the course Keith Ottesen believes it is highly unlikely the card will go ahead.

"The chances of our situation improving is slim to none, but we'll go on Monday and have a check," he said.

"However, it'll have to improve quite dramatically and there's not much prospect of it going ahead.

Keith Ottesen: 'The chances of our situation improving is slim to none.'Credit: Edward Whitaker

"We covered up the track with frost fleeces on Wednesday, but with the extremely cold temperatures frost has got underneath them. We went as low as -6C on Friday and while it did get up to 3C on Saturday, it eventually dropped to -4C which wasn't high enough to shift the frost.

"During the day on Sunday it was -1C so we're coming up to a 24-hour period where it's been below zero following a severe frost. We've got much of the same to what we've had coming up. It'll be zero tomorrow and -5C overnight, while it'll be -4C on Tuesday night and just getting above freezing during the day."

Exeter does not have frost covers and Dan Cooper, who is also the clerk at Wincanton, believes the challenges they have faced with the weather has left the course playing catch-up to get their fixture on.

"It's a challenge. The predicament we're in as well is the ground is drying out significantly too, we haven't seen anything like it," he said.

"I think with Wincanton we hadn't seen rain for about seven to ten days and going into December with good ground is ridiculous and strange. In the end, it made Wincanton an easy decision.

"At Exeter we've not got huge resources and no frost covers down there too. I'm looking at a currently precarious forecast without any frost covers. We'll review on Tuesday but we're chasing behind the weather.

"We got down to as low as -8C on Friday night and I'd say we are part raceable, part unraceable. We will know by Tuesday if the writing is on the wall. If there is some improvement, we'll inspect again on Wednesday, but I'd say we're 50-50 at the moment."

Exeter: Thursday fixture already looks in doubtCredit: Edward Whitaker

Both clerks also admitted that the cold snap, along with a run of dry weather, has heavily impacted their jobs in maintaining conditions fit for racing.

Cooper added: "It's demoralising. We had lots of declarations for Wincanton and a good card set for Exeter, but it's yet another knock for two small courses. We only get so many chances with the meetings this season and at Wincanton, we've lost three already.

"We've not got many chances and this sport is meant to be fun, but at the moment it's just challenging. Hopefully the day where it becomes fun again comes soon."

Ottesen added: "Thankfully we managed to get the Coral Gold Cup on and it went well, but now we're seeing reports where people are watering and then having to put frost covers on.

"It's the strangest of times in December I've seen with watering followed by rapid cold temperatures. We need it to warm up a bit and get some more rain soon."

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