Wolverhampton cancelled on weather-beaten weekend
The Friday evening meeting at Wolverhampton has been cancelled at the last minute after jockeys have agreed that the track conditions are too dangerous to race.
This is the latest cancellation on a weather-beaten weekend which has seen Newcastle and Fairyhouse rescheduling several races and a number of other races ‘pending inspection’.
"It's balling up so badly now that it's almost like my horse was on stilts,” said jockey Franny Norton from Wolverhampton to Racing Post. “There's no way we could continue."
Towcester also announced the cancellation of a Saturday meeting based on a Friday morning inspection. Track officials were unable to cover the course on Thursday night and found the turf had frozen solid.
“It was -3c at 6am this morning with a windchill factor of -5/6c. The track is frozen solid and it was an easy decision to make,” said course clerk Robert Bellamy. “It was good to be able to make it early so that trainers and jockeys can make other plans.”
Fairyhouse already had to shuffle their schedule around due to some track drainage issues and has more recently announced that the Saturday 27 November fixture would be moved to Thursday 2 December to protect the ground before Sunday’s card, which hosts
three Grade 1 runs, the Hatton's Grace Hurdle, Drinmore Novice Chase and Royal Bond Novice Hurdle.
“Due to continuing track work, we planned to race on a small section of the same ground on both days of the Winter festival. In light of the adverse weather forecast we feel this section of ground might be unable to take two days racing back-to-back,” said
track manager Peter Roe. “We will be putting frost covers at the take-off and landings of all fences and hurdles to protect Sunday's ground.”
Carlisle’s Sunday meeting has been declared as doubtful and is pending a Saturday 11am inspection, while Leicester’s jump fixture on Sunday will also only be run pending a Saturday midday inspection.
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