Horse Racing: Cheltenham certain of hosting meetings
Ireland and Britain racing fans are utterly disappointed as the racing events and fixtures are constantly being abandoned one after another. Nonetheless, the clerk of the Cheltenham racecourse has assured the fans and all those
involved in the horse business that it is certain that all the racing cards that have been scheduled for Friday and Saturday will be staged as per planned.
On Sunday, the chase and hurdle tracks were completely covered by the clerk of the course and his officials at Cheltenham; however, only the cross-country course was protected by the staff at Cheltenham.
Claisse, the clerk of the course discussed the conditions at the track in detail with the media on Wednesday. He rightly said that as the temperatures in the country are starting to warm up, he thinks that the cross-country race
that has been planned for Friday will take place. He mentioned that this week has been much better with respect to the weather forecast and recorded temperatures. The temperature has gone up to -2C from -12C in two days, which is a good sign. While giving
the interview, he also stated that at this time yesterday the temperature was recorded to be -5C.
According to the weather forecast today, the temperature in the region is expected to stay above the freezing point on both the days of the meetings. Nonetheless, Claisse has not yet ruled out the plan of covering the track after
the Friday event has taken place.
Claisse also revealed that there are some parts of the track that are still solid with frozen snow, but he is confident that there will be no problem in starting the meeting at 1.50 p.m. on Friday and Saturday instead of 1.15 p.m.
He also added that there might be a change in the timings of the races according to the weather conditions on Friday.
Talking to the correspondents he said, “We’ve done it before. The last chase (on Friday) is early so we could start covering the course from 2.45 p.m. and if we have to do it well.”
On the other hand, the officials at the Doncaster racecourse have given up all hopes for the two meetings this weekend after an inspection at noon today. The track is covered with snow. Thus, it has been declared unfit for any
racing event to take place.
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