Officially British summer time is here – long summer evenings, beer gardens packed to the rafters and plenty of smiling people.
Those thoughts must have been a million miles away for the crowd at Shawfield last night. Stormy conditions forced the abandonment of the opening heats of the Bettor.com Scottish Derby with high winds and driving rain causing a power failure. The track was deemed raceable at the start of the evening and one heat was completed before the weather took centre stage.
As the floodlights began to flicker on and off, a power surge caused the mechanical hare to stop at the first bend during the second heat. There was a 30-minute standoff between the organizers as constant heavy rain/sleet was by now seeing track conditions deteriorate, with a number of trainers expressing severe reservations about continuing.
Although most of the track was deemed raceable, there were worries about an area between the third and fourth bends. That, allied to the possibility of further power problems leaving the hare mechanism vulnerable, led to the decision being taken to bring an end to proceedings in the interests of safety.
Even though the action was at a bare minimum the solitary race of the night saw ante-post Scottish Derby favourite Jordansolutions knocked out in a huge upset.
As predicted on bettor.com the Charlie Lister runner struggled to cope with the early pace and never looked a threat to let alone qualify never mind winning the race. The odds on shot came in a disappointing fifth place, six lengths off the winner Westmead Scolari (29.89sec) who got up to beat Wilfy Wells by a nose. Final Washington finished four lengths back in third and also qualifies for the second round.
As the weather forecast in Glasgow shows no signs of improving over the next few days, the remainder of the heats have been re-scheduled for this Saturday. Sky Sports were due to cover the final on April 10th but that has now been pushed back to April 17th, with the meeting being aired live on Sky Sports 4 from 7.30pm.
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