Frost threatens British weekend cards

Prospects for the televised meeting at Sandown on Saturday are already rated as 'pretty slim' as the icy weather continues to take its toll on British racing.

The valuable card is due to feature the Grade One Gerrard Tolworth Hurdle and the Sun `King Of The Punters` Mildmay Cazalet Memorial Chase.

Clerk of the course Andrew Cooper said today: 'It is very much unraceable at the moment. We had minus six last night on top of minus four the night before, which compounded the situation.

'The frost is well and truly in the ground and the forecast for the week is not that encouraging.

'Things have got to improve in a relatively short space of time for us to be able to race.'

Channel 4 are also due to televise Uttoxeter where clerk of the course David McAllister said: 'We have still got a covering a snow. That`s kept a lot of the frost off but last night it got down to minus eight and it is still below freezing now.

'The weather is supposed to improve with cloud cover tomorrow and temperatures getting to three or four degrees tomorrow.'

A decision would be made tomorrow on whether an inspection would be arranged, he added.

Haydock is also due to race on Saturday and clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright said: 'It doesn`t look brilliant. We will take a view on Thursday and formulate a plan of what to do on Friday.

'At the moment, we are frozen rock solid and it is getting very cold at night. There is a bit of snow but the problem is frost.'

The other turf meeting on Saturday is at Musselburgh where clerk of the course Bill Farnsworth said: 'It`s still frozen and it looks like a frost tonight.

'We are waiting until tomorrow for an up-to-date forecast. It is supposed to be getting milder towards the end of the week - it`s just how mild it gets. The temperature hasn`t really risen at all today.'

Meanwhile, prospects of racing at Sedgefield on Thursday still appear to be remote but there are no plans to bring forward tomorrow`s inspection.

General manager Alan Brown said that the 11.30am precautionary inspection arranged for that day would not be moved.

Hopes of racing at Taunton on Thursday have improved slightly after a less severe frost was forecast for tomorrow night.

No problems are reported from Lingfield where an all-weather card is scheduled.

Stewards at Hexham are likely to hold an inspection on Thursday morning to see if Friday`s meeting can go ahead.

An inspection is expected to be called at Ludlow on Thursday to assess prospects for Friday`s meeting.

Friday`s other meeting is scheduled for the all-weather at Southwell.