Newcastle abandoned due to snow Newcastle's fixture on Saturday, featuring the StanJames.com Fighting Fifth Hurdle, has been abandoned. With Gosforth Park submerged by seven inches of snow, a situation exacerbated by a bleak 48-hour weather forecast, clerk of the course James Armstrong saw little point in delaying the inevitable. Armstrong said: "We are still below freezing, and have seen very little improvement as the day has gone on. There is snow sitting on our cars, never mind the racecourse. "Even if by some miracle there is a thaw, which we are not going to get, we would be waterlogged anyway." Binocular and Peddlers Cross were among the six declared for the Grade One hurdle, which it is hoped may be restaged in the near future.
