Frozen Exeter cancels meeting after insufficient rise in temperatures

Today's meeting at Exeter has been cancelled after an insufficient rise in temperatures this morning.

It was -2C at the Devon track at 6.40am but temperatures are not set to peak at 2C until mid afternoon according to the Met Office forecast.

A first inspection was held at 9.30am, but the planned second inspection at 10.30am was brought forward after a lack of improvement in conditions.

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Clerk of the course Daniel Cooper said: "It's extremely frustrating but we've been left with no choice but to cancel.

"We were quite optimistic at 6am as all the areas under frost covers were one hundred per cent raceable, but the uncovered areas have not improved during the morning and temperatures have actually dropped in the back straight.

"The BHA course inspector said we needed to see improvement within 45 minutes after our 9.30am check, but there was no improvements in half an hour so we made an early call."

Musselburgh had better luck this morning and was given the go ahead for today's meeting after the planned morning inspection was brought forward.

Temperatures failed to drop lower than 4C and 1mm of rain fell at the East Lothian track overnight.

The going remains soft, good to soft in places with four races on the six-race card now being televised on ITV. Proschema (1.55) and Mount Mews (3.05) are notable non-runners.

ITV will show three races from Tramore, most notably the feature Savills New Year's Day Chase at Tramore in which dual Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Al Boum Photo (2.37) seeks a hat-trick on his return.

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12.40 Southwell Compass Point 3-1 (from 6)
1.55 Musselburgh Rosie And Millie 5-2 (from 4)
2.30 Musselburgh Acdc 12-1 (from 18)
3.00 Southwell Expert Opinion 10-3 (from 5)
3.35 Musselburgh Arnica 4-1 (from 17-2)

The going is soft, heavy in places at Tramore and standard to slow on the Fibresand at the other fixture in Britain at Southwell.

Adrimel is a non-runner in the Unibet Tolworth Novices' Hurdle at Sandown on Saturday due to being off colour, while Cork's meeting on the same day is subject to an inspection at 8am due to the risk of frost overnight.

Read a selection of Friday's previews

Here's hoping for a better 2021 - and Al Boum Photo means it starts in style (members’)

It's Boum time! Dual Gold Cup hero out to start new year with a bang

Henrietta Knight: Al Boum campaign like Best Mate's but pair are very different (members’)

Smart chasers and Flat performers clash in fascinating handicap hurdle

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