The cold snap continues to affect racing in Britain, with today's scheduled meeting at Haydock abandoned although Taunton has got the go ahead after a morning inspection.
Inspections are also planned for meetings tomorrow, with Uttoxeter having a look at 7.30am and Warwick holding an inspection half-an-hour later.
Cheltenham are hopeful their New Year's Day meeting will beat the freeze by taking the usual precautions of covering the course, and they have been helped by cloud cover during the past two overnight frosts.
'Providing the weather forecast is correct, we should be fine,' said Simon Claisse, Cheltenham's clerk of the course and director of racing.
'It is forecast to get down to minus three or four degrees for the next few nights, but the entire course has been covered. The crucial factor is cloud cover and fortunately we have had some for the past two nights which has helped us.'
The going is described as good to soft.
Exeter's meeting on Thursday is already in some doubt with an inspection called for 11am tomorrow.
Meanwhile north of the border in Scotland, Ayr will hold an inspection at 9.30am on Thursday to assess the prospects of racing on Friday and Saturday.
The ground is currently frozen in places after temperatures fell to as low as minus four on the last three nights and, with temperatures unlikely to change for the remainder of the week, clerk of the course Katherine Self has decided to call an early check.
'This is very frustrating as there is a good covering of grass on the course and we moved early to lay covers, but frost is still getting into the ground,' said Self.
'Daytime temperatures are only rising to three degrees and the band of high pressure that has brought us this weather is not likely to move. We can only hope that the forecasters have got it wrong.'
