Newcastle and Warwick abandoned and Friday inspections called

Today's meetings at Warwick and Newcastle have been cancelled after conditions failed to improve overnight leading both tracks to bring forward planned 8am inspections.

The bad weather will continue to put meetings at risk with Bangor's Friday card now the subject of an 8am inspection on the morning of racing, while Hereford will have a look at the same time regarding its Saturday fixture. However, Cheltenham does not envisage any problems for the two-day December meeting which starts on Friday.

Warwick had been up against it, with officials looking twice on Wednesday, but their decision to give the track more time was not rewarded.

Warwick's clerk of the course Jane Hedley reported: "There has been no further improvement overnight. Areas of patchy snow remain on the back straight on top of ground which is already heavy."

It was a similar situation at Newcastle, where clark of the course James Armstrong said: "Temperatures dropped below freezing again leaving areas still frozen and unraceable."

Watch: James Armstrong has tweeted a video of Newcastle's frozen ground

Bangor will inspect at 8am before Friday's card. The ground is currently heavy and the track has had 16mm of rain in the last 24 hours with the threat of more to come.

Conditions at Hereford are currently given as soft but some areas are covered in snow and the track is currently unraceable.

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