Tolworth Hurdle could be washed out at Sandown
The English weather has been in an unforgiving mood this winter for the country’s racetracks. This latest track to be affected by the weather is Sandown Park.
The race track has been a subjected to heavy rain-fall, which took place both on Thursday and Friday. The Rainfall that was recorded on Thursday was 15 millimetres, while Friday added another 5 millimetres to that figure.
According to the clerk of the racecourse, Andrew Cooper, Sandown was race-ready on Friday as the rain had just made the course soft. However, forecasts estimate that the area will receive a further 12 to 18 millimetres of rain-fall. Therefore, the track
has to be inspected before it is declared safe for the afternoon’s meet, as there is a very real danger of the ground becoming waterlogged.
Cooper commented on the rainfall on Friday by saying, "Sometimes you can be surprised what five millimetres does and at other times you can take 10 millimetres very well, but certainly the higher end of the forecast would be of concern. We'll just have to
see."
Today's meeting has been jeopardised as a result of the dampness, and will only be given the affirmative if Sandown Park clears the inspection, which was scheduled to take place on Saturday morning.
The meeting in question is a Grade 1, 32 Red Hurdle event. The race is better known as the Tolworth Hurdle, this time five horses are registered to take part in the race. One star contender of the meet is Megastar, whose trainer Gary Moore admits that the
wetness of the ground at Sandown could affect the horse’s performance, even though Megastar is in excellent condition.
"I don't know how he'll handle the ground to be honest and it would be a concern," said Moore. “There's only five runners, but all the good ones are there and it will be down to which copes with the heavy ground best.”
That is of course, if the ground has been able to cope with the rain, and clears the inspection first.
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