© Photo Healy Racing
This afternoon's meeting at Newcastle has been abandoned after overnight snow hit the track.
Having covered parts of the course to guard against the threat of frost, clerk of the course James Armstrong was not anticipating any problems ahead of an excellent seven-race card, due to feature the prestigious Betfred Eider.
However, after arriving at the track this morning Armstrong found over an inch of snow had fallen at the Gosforth Park circuit and following an 8am inspection, he was forced to call off proceedings.
Armstrong said: "There are plenty of people here willing to lend a hand but in the time we've got it's an impossible task, I'm afraid.
"We covered a mile and a quarter of the track with fleece earlier in the week and we've tried to take it off. Because there is so much snow on top, it is balling up and the fleece is tearing.
"It's snowing heavily again now and unfortunately we've had no option but to call off the meeting."
