Horse Racing: Fixtures falling victim to harsh weather conditions
The freezing weather conditions caused the Ayr fixture that was taking place on Wednesday, to be abandoned. It is the last race that has been cancelled after there were minimum prospects of racing observed at the Ayr racecourse, so far.
After a midday inspection that was conducted on the track by the officials of the Ayr racecourse on Monday, the clerk Emma Marley was disappointed to announce that the Wednesday meeting was not possible since the track was frozen. Talking to the correspondents
while announcing the decision as a result of the inspection, she said, “We abandoned due to frozen track, and low daytime temperatures aren’t going to effect a thaw.”
She added, “The forecast is for -4 degree celcius every night and we are -1 degree celcius now at noon, so we felt we had little prospect.”
The jump racing fans will get another day to relax since Ayr’s meeting has been cancelled and the chances for the Plumpton meeting taking place are also bleak. However, the final announcement about the event will be made after the inspection that is due
today. Navan has also fallen victim to the big freeze, meanwhile the Wednesday fixture at Kemptom is almost certain to take place.
At Lingfield, a bonus meeting will take place at 1 p.m. on Thursday to make up for the loss that was caused as a result of abandoning the races due to extremely cold weather across Britain and Ireland. The bonus meeting will be based on six races, organized
by the British Horse Racing Authority in association with the Levy Board. The deadline for the entries is announced to be noon on Tuesday the 30th of November 2010, while the final contestants will be declared by 10 a.m. on Wednesday the 1st
of December. After the Southwell jumps fixture replacement, this is the second all-weather meeting that will be taking place in this particular week. The jumps event at Southwell was also called off due to frosty weather.
The number of racing events that have been lost due to cold weather is distressing. According to weather forecasters, the big freeze is to remain at least till the weekend and any improvement in the rough weather is expected next week but will not last long.
The hopes of the Tingle Creek Chase meeting at Sandown have also been turned down by the spokesman of the Met Office. It is expected that the weekend fixture will be moved to Cheltenham.
Tags: