Horse Racing: Inspection for Lingfield jumps card, Gowran card falls to weather
Although the temperatures in the country are slightly rising, the prospects of the scheduled meetings are still bleak. The jump meeting that was planned to take place on Saturday at the Lingfield racecourse is now subject to an
inspection on Friday so that officials of the racecourse can judge the thawing conditions on the track. Nonetheless, they do not seem very hopeful about the possibility of the fixture to be taking place.
Meanwhile, it has also been announced that if the clerk of the course decides to abandon the meeting after the inspection, the jumps card will be replaced by a Flat card that will take place on the Polytrack circuit of the course.
Neil Mackenzie Ross, clerk of the course, told the correspondents on Wednesday,
“As the hours and minutes tick by there has been absolutely no movement out there and it is forecast to freeze again tonight – I fear that the thaw may be too little too late.”
The time of the inspection as announced by Mackenzie is 10.30 a.m. on Friday morning, but if the jumping is called off, the Flat card has been kept on standby by the British Horseracing Authority.
On the other hand, the latest racing event that has fallen victim to the extremely freezing conditions of the country is the Gowran’s meeting that was scheduled to take place on Friday this week. The officials of the racecourse
announced the abandonment after they started considering calling off the event earlier in the day.
The officials of the Turf Club inspected the track before making the final judgement. According to their observations, the track was solid with frozen snow. Moreover, the officials have also not received any good news from the
Met Office so they were very much in doubt if the track was going to warm up a little by Friday.
Other racecourses that are being subjected to the frost stress include Fairyhouse, Navan and Lingfield. The rearranged meeting at Fairyhouse that was planned for Saturday is still in doubt and so is the Sunday fixture at Navan.
However, the officials of the Cork racecourse are certain that racing will be taking place on Sunday. Meanwhile Dundalk will be hosting the racing event on Friday while the Flat season will be said goodbye to. Snow and freezing frost is yet expected to claim
the meetings and fixtures planned in this week, particularly.
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