Winter jumping coming to Hereford after two false starts

Hereford belatedly launches its winter jumps campaign on almost summer ground on Wednesday when the track host its first meeting of the season after two previous fixtures had to be transferred.

Due to reopen on October 17, the course was forced to call off the fixture and the following meeting on November 14 due to the risk of firm or hard going, having had no significant rainfall and being unable to water sufficiently.

Conditions will be good (good to firm in places) on the chase course and good to firm (good in places) on the hurdles track ahead of a seven race card which has attracted 71 declarations.

The track's executive director and clerk of the course Rebecca Davies said: "Who would have thought during the middle to end of November we would be needing to water, but that was the situation we were faced with.

"We did what we could with the water we had available but we just seem to be in a rain shadow and do seem to miss big quantities of rainfall which scuppered us for those two fixtures.

"The last measurement of rain was 1mm on Sunday but we have had about 6mm since the last scheduled meeting and have put on about 8mm of water on the track on Saturday. We are looking forward to welcoming everyone. The fantastic decs speak volumes."

Hereford reopened last October, having been shut since 2012, and has made plans to ensure it has an independent water supply in the future.

Davies said: "We have agreed heads of terms with the county council to build a 4,000 cubic metre reservoir in the centre of the course. Hopefully work will commence imminently which will mean we are self-sufficient in our own watering."

Hereford card

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