Cheltenham gets green light following second inspection

Friday’s meeting at Cheltenham will go ahead as scheduled after the track passed a second morning inspection at 10.30am. The first day of the International meeting was in some doubt due to very cold temperatures in the Cotswolds.

The mercury reaching minus 7.5C late on Thursday night but thankfully the frost covers which were deployed earlier in the week have done their job.

While clerk of the course Jon Pullin initially looked at 7.30am and was confident of racing taking place, he called a second look to be on the safe side and was eventually able to give the all-clear.

Pullin said: “The majority of the covers have been lifted and the ground is raceable underneath, so racing goes ahead.”

The first of six races at Cheltenham is due to get under way at 12.40pm with the scheduled first race on the cross country course already frozen off.

Officials at Prestbury Park will again inspect at 7.30 ahead of Saturday’s meeting, which is due to stage the International Hurdle and the December Gold Cup.

“The covers will go down straight after racing, in fact we’ll actually start the process in the two-and-a-half-mile chute during racing today as we don’t race on that chute after the fourth race,” Pullin added.

“So we’ll get that covered while we continue racing on the round course and then we’ll get the rest of the covers down as soon as we can.

“The forecast is for another minus 3C/minus 4C frost tonight and again temperatures are slow to rise on Saturday morning.”

Doncaster’s Friday fixture was also given the green light following a second inspection, with racing delayed by 30 minutes to allow time for ground staff time to remover the frost covers, but officials at Bangor drew stumps earlier in the morning with parts of the track still frozen.

The team at Hereford have called a precautionary check for 7.30am ahead of racing on Saturday.

Sunday’s meeting at Carlisle has been abandoned, while Market Rasen will inspect at midday on Sunday ahead of Monday’s meeting with temperatures forecast to be well below freezing for consecutive nights.