Musselburgh to host John Smith's Scottish Cheltenham trials card on Saturday
British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has decided to reschedule John Smith's Scottish Cheltenham Trials card, as Musselburgh will now stage the fixture this Saturday.
Musselburgh’s richest ever Jumps fixture was programmed to take place last Sunday, but the meetings were cancelled due to poor conditions at the racecourse. It was certainly a disappointing result for those who were set to take part in the competition.
The high status trainer, Nicky Henderson was scheduled to have five runners at Musselburgh. His high profile trainees, Keys and Lyvius, were also due to have an outing on Sunday, but the inhospitable weather spoiled the entire show.
A few of the participants also demanded a reschedule, and BHA finally made the right move. According to the new plan, the trials day card will be held this Saturday, with the opening contest starting at 01:10 (local time). Wednesday noon has been set
as the deadline for the entries, and the final announcement will be made on Friday morning.
The new card includes John Smith´s Novices´ Hurdle, John Smith´s Handicap Hurdle, John Smith´s Scottish County Hurdle (A Handicap), John Smith´s Future Champions Novices´ Chase, John Smith´s Scottish Champion Chase (A Handicap) (For The Bowes-Lyons
Cup). Among other programmed meetings are John Smith´s Scottish Triumph Hurdle (A Juvenile Hurdle), and
John Smith´s Stayers Handicap Hurdle.
"It is a great example of the industry pulling together. We are finalizing details but it should be a £75,000 card again and we are hoping to stage the Scottish County Hurdle Trial at £20,000 again,” the track's general manager Bill Farnsworth said.
He added: "We only missed Sunday's card by a couple of hours and the forecast is for +2 overnight and 9C during the day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday."
Some parts of the track are still frozen, but the ground-staff is determined to make conditions race-able before the high profile meetings.
Due to poor conditions, Kempton’s Friday card is also in serious danger. Hence, the horseracing authority has planned an all-weather Bumpers-for-Jumpers card. This plan will be implemented only if the venue fails to stage the scheduled races because
of the bad weather.
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