Windsor fails morning inspection after heavy overnight rain

Windsor was forced to cancel its meeting on Thursday after the track failed its 6.30am raceday inspection after more heavy overnight rain.

The Berkshire venue was due to stage a ten-race card but a small area of the track became unraceable after 11mm of rain fell on Wednesday and remained that way after 2mm of overnight rain.

"We've had well over 40mm of rain in six days," said clerk of the course Sophie Candy. "The 7mm shower on Monday morning has done for us. We had more than 90 horses racing on soft ground.

"We repaired the track as best we could but there's one isolated area that is still holding water. The track will just need a couple of days to properly recover. It's a shame and we never would have expected this after we had such high temperatures early last week."

Chepstow's fixture on Sunday has already been lost because of waterlogging and the BHA has moved swiftly to replace it with a card on the all-weather at Wolverhampton, whose bill will mirror the schedule at the Welsh track.

Chepstow: Sunday's fixture has already been lost because of waterloggingCredit: Edward Whitaker

The regulator said entries would close at noon on Thursday with declarations due at the normal 48-hour stage on Friday morning.

"The afternoon fixture will be an eight-race card with the ability to divide to nine races if required," announced the BHA.

"The race programme will be similar to that due to take place at Chepstow."

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