Fighting Fifth meeting very doubtful Newcastle's high-profile Saturday meeting is in serious doubt with officials deciding to call an 8am inspection for Friday morning. Gosforth Park is due to stage the Grade One Fighting Fifth Hurdle featuring Binocular this weekend but with over five inches of snow currently laying on top of the frost covers, clerk of the course James Armstrong is pessimistic. "If the weather continues as it has in the last 24 hours we may look to bring things forward, but at the moment we're holding an inspection at 8am on Friday," said Armstrong. "We've got certainly five inches of snow on the track and the last time I check it's 0.1C, so it's not going to shift in a great hurry. "We're very overcast an dark and forecasters are telling us unfortunately we will see more snow showers moving in from the north east coast. "It's looking quite bleak at the moment. It's very hard to optimistic when you're walking around in ankle deep snow." Meanwhile today's meeting at Uttoxeter goes ahead after passing an 8.30am inspection. Course temperatures dipped to minus 3C overnight but clerk of the course Charlie Moore is delighted to report the fleece that was laid on the track has done its job. "It's good news and racing goes ahead. The sun is out and the forecasters assure me temperatures will rise to plus 3C," said Moore. "The fleece we had down has done a fantastic job. Where we didn't have any fleece down the course is quite crispy and you wouldn't have been happy to have racing on, but under the fleece, it's top dollar."
