Horse Racing: Wincanton’s meeting abandoned
The “Big Freeze”, has victimized many of the much anticipated events that were scheduled to take place this week. Another one is added to the list. This time the freezing weather has caused the cancellation of the Wincanton’s meeting, that is scheduled to take place on Thursday .Due to extreme weather conditions of the track, a show-down would spell disaster.
Officials inspected the area at nine a.m. in the morning. The clerk of the track, Barry Johnson, announced that there was no chance a meeting could kick-off on a frozen track. He said while talking to the correspondents,
“It is not race-able today and the Met Office have assured me that the max temperature we could get today is 1 degree Celsius, but could be followed by two inches of snow tonight. There is no point in messing about.”
Earlier this week, the other meetings that have been abandoned to the extremely frost weather conditions include the ones that were scheduled to take place at Leicester, Fairyhouse and Market Rasen. Meanwhile, the Lingfield card will now be providing a bonus fixture on Thursday.
Moreover, an inspection at Musselburgh has also been called by the racecourse officials, in order to decide for Monday’s fixture. It has been revealed that this inspection will take place on Friday noon. So far, the course is covered by snow as thick as 23 centimeters. According to the Met Office, the weather is to remain as such this week while only some slight improvement is expected next week, which will not last for long.
It was also announced on Tuesday that the Kempton twilight meeting card is moved. According to the announcement, the fixture would now take place at 2 p.m. On the other hand, the Grade I Tingle Creek at Sandown is also in doubt, since the Met Office revelations are not very encouraging for the organizers and management of the Saturday’s meeting. This race will be featuring some of the most talented racehorses. Master Minded, who is so far being considered the strongest contender of the event, will be ridden by Tony McCoy. McCoy is one of the nominees of the exalted, Sports Personality of the Year Award. It is expected that fixture will be moved to Chaltenham, if weather conditions are not favorable in Sandown. Meanwhile, the next meeting at Wincanton will take place on 26th December, after the abandonment of Thursday’s fixture.
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