Waterlogged Pontefract and Fairyhouse meetings abandoned – Horse Racing Update
Heavy rainfall has resulted in the abandonment of the Pontefract and Fairyhouse meetings, which were scheduled to take part on Tuesday, July 10, 2012.
The fans would have been expecting some exciting races at both the venues, which were all set to stage a few main events today. However, the conditions did not turn out to be good at all, thus the organisers were forced to call the action off.
The English summer has affected a lot of sports and horseracing is no different. Due to the heavy rain falls, the water level under the ground has also raised. This means that even little rain can cause problems for the organisers at any venue in this part
of the world.
Richard Hammill, clerk of the course at Pontefract, was disappointed with the heavy rainfall. He claimed that the forecast was good and everyone was ready for action. However, the weather changed all of a sudden and the rain left a lot of water on the track.
According to Hammill, “It's off, the light rain we were supposed to get has just been non-stop heavy rain. We've now had 10 millimetres in an hour and there's water everywhere. We're absolutely gutted. It's just not what was forecast at all.”
He went onto say that an inspection was held in the morning and everything looked perfect until the weather changed dramatically. He added, “Apparently 15 miles north and 20 miles south it is beautiful sunshine. We walked the track at 9.30am with a trainer
who said it was raceable and when we've walked it again an hour later, he can't believe the difference. We just can't believe it. It wasn't forecast at all.”
On the other hand, there were no surprises at Fairyhouse, as overnight rain left the officials with no choice at all, but to abandon the meeting. The waterlogged track was not good for racing at all and the organisers were left dejected in the end.
An inspection was scheduled at Fairyhouse today, but the officials decided against it in the end. They believed that racing was not possible at all due to the 10mm overnight rain.
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