Leicester and Ludlow abandoned today Leicester and Ludlow have abandoned this afternoon's meetings due to frozen tracks. Clerk of the course for Leicester Jimmy Stevenson inspected the track at 8am but after temperatures dropped further than expected, he was left with little choice but to call off the card. He said: "We have abandoned. We were only expecting minus 2C overnight but it got down to minus 6.4C. "The predicted high for today is 4C or possibly 5C but not until about 2pm, which gives us no chance." Officials were due to inspect the track at Ludlow at 8am but after temperatures dropped to minus 4C overnight, they decided to take an earlier look. Clerk of the course Bob Davies said: "The temperature had dropped to freezing by teatime and went down to minus 4C and we were still at that temperature at 6am. "We're forecast 1C today and as the frost didn't come out of some patches of the ground yesterday, there's no real possibility of racing and no point in hanging on.'' Meanwhile, this afternoon's meeting at Newcastle (1.20pm start) goes ahead after the track passed an inspection. Clerk of the course James Armstrong had planned to take a look at 8am, but he was able to give the meeting the go-ahead a little earlier than expected after temperatures failed to hit their forecast lows. He said: "We're fine to race. It didn't fall below freezing all night, it was about 3C, and we might get up to about 4C today.'' Tomorrow's meeting at Towcester, however, has been abandoned also due to a frozen track. Clerk of the course Robert Bellamy has made an early decision to call off the fixture as there appears to be little chance of the track being fit for racing. He said: "We were raceable yesterday but the temperature dropped lower than expected overnight and it's currently minus 2C. "We have a wind chill of minus 4C today and then the temperature is forecast to fall to minus 3C overnight with a wind chill of minus 9C. "Tomorrow is forecast to be minus 1C with a wind chill of minus 4C so there's no chance of us being fit to race."
