Hereford’s Sunday meeting cancelled due to frozen track
Hereford’s Sunday meeting has been called off, as the track was frozen. The officials carried out an inspection on Saturday, February 11, 2012 and the decision was not a hard one for them in the end.
Plenty of horseracing events in England have been abandoned recently due to extreme weather conditions. There was some hope that the track at Hereford would be ready for action by tomorrow, but freezing temperatures did not let that happen in the end.
Although rain helped melting the frost down at the venue, the temperature fell way below freezing point afterwards. This did not work out in favour of the organisers, who were helpless against nature.
An inspection was scheduled on Saturday to decide the fate of Hereford, but the organisers of the track made the decision of cancellation early morning. Last night, they were hoping that the conditions would improve, but had to be realistic about the situation
in the end.
Clerk of the course, Keith Ottesen, said that he was happy when the rain came down instead of snow, as it made the track conditions better. However, the local fans were not lucky enough in the end, as the mercury fell overnight. This resulted in a frozen
track once again, and there was nothing much that could have been done from then onwards.
According to Ottesen, “On Thursday night we had rain instead of snow which brought the frost out of the ground and we were very close to being raceable on Friday.”
He further added, “But then last night we got down to minus six and it froze again. Temperatures are not due to rise that much during Saturday and it is expected to be minus two overnight so we have succumbed to the inevitable.”
Hereford’s clerk of the course had already predicted the abandonment of Sunday’s event yesterday. He was disappointed over the situation, but said that nothing could be done in such circumstances.
Ottesen was expecting snowfall last night, and said that only a miracle could change the situation of the track. Although his predictions of snow went wrong, the conditions did not change much in the end and the hard decision was taken.
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