Hexham’s Wednesday’s meeting has been canceled due to a frozen track as the cold snap continues to hit Britain.
The six-race card was called off before the scheduled 8am race day inspection.
Course director James Armstrong said: “It was quite an easy task. The temperature here dropped below freezing around 6pm last night and has remained below freezing since.
“We haven’t had much rain lately, but all the turf mixing and repair work has gone well thanks to the cold temperatures. Temperatures won’t rise until well after 10am today.
“Our next meeting is on December 11, so we still have plenty of time before then.”
Warwick survived its race day inspection at 7am on Wednesday, but the circuit will hold another inspection at the same time on Thursday before the second part of the two-day winter festival as temperatures will drop to -3C on Wednesday evening.
Course director Nessie Chanter said on Wednesday morning: “The ground temperature is still 5 degrees Celsius, despite hitting -2 degrees Celsius overnight. The sun is rising and rising at a rate of one degree per hour. Our concern is tonight; it’s going to drop. ” to -3 degrees Celsius and it is a bit slower to get above zero degrees Celsius.”
The arrival of wet and snowy weather is no cause for concern ahead of Saturday’s feature cards at Haydock and Ascot.
The Grade 1 Betfair Chase is the highlight of the weekend in Britain and the crowds Haydock was covered in snow on Tuesday.
Last year’s winner Royal Page could clash with the exciting Turners Novices’ Chase winner Gray dawn, Ahoy Señor and the supplemented Capodanno in the 3m1½f competition.
Haydock is expecting rain on Saturday’s Betfair Chase dayCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)
“We’re in a good place,” course director Dan Cooper said Tuesday afternoon. ‘We read the weather forecasts with relative calm, even though last night’s snow hung around longer than we expected.
“We will have to accept whatever frost comes each morning, but I don’t think it will be penetrating ground frost, but more grass frost, which recovers quite quickly. It’s quite a sporadic forecast in terms of rain.”
The situation could change significantly during Saturday’s race, with rain forecast throughout the day.
Cooper said: “Saturday looks to be raining from wall to wall from 1am to 9pm. Conditions can deteriorate quite quickly. It may change during racing but the ground can cope this early in the season.
“Friday and Saturday look pretty normal as they will be wet and not frozen. Things are going well at the moment but due to the snow I’m hesitant to do an update as you don’t get a good picture of things.”
The situation is similar at Ascot, where course director Chris Stickels said the recent rain was “helpful” for the two-day competition.
Saturday’s meeting will be headlined by the £100,000 Ascot Hurdle, which could feature the impressive winner of the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle Golden Ace.
Stickels said: “We have had about 17.5mm in the last 24 hours and are continuing with 25mm in the last seven days. We are a mix of soft and good to soft at the moment. The rain has helped us.
“It will be colder in the coming days. It can freeze quite a bit on Wednesday and Thursday morning and the weather will be a bit milder on Friday and Saturday, with rain on Saturday. Conditions may be a bit milder next Saturday.
“There will be occasional hailstorms, but no significant snow is forecast. We are talking about temperatures dropping to -1ºC and rising to 4ºC, 5ºC and 6ºC. I don’t foresee any problem with the rain that is forecast.”
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