Doncaster and Wetherby follow Catterick in calling off meetings due to cold snap

Doncaster clerk of the course David Attwood made an early call ahead of Friday’s meeting.

He said: “We got down to -2C and there is still some snow on the course from Sunday which prevented us from fleecing the track, along with the area of waterlogged ground on Bawtry Road, which is also frozen now.

“We are forecast -4C tonight and the same tomorrow, possibly even -5C, so we thought it best to take an early decision now.”

Thursday’s card at Catterick was called off on Tuesday. Wetherby’s card on Saturday is also off following an inspection.

Wetherby’s clerk of the course Jonjo Sanderson said: “We’ve got snow, we’re frozen and we’re waterlogged, so it wasn’t a difficult decision!

“There’s still a huge amount of snow on the back straight particularly and we’ve also got widespread waterlogging down the back straight which over the past couple of days has slowly frozen over. Last night we had temperatures of minus 3.5C, so we’ve got ice that’s half an inch thick and basically an enormous frozen lake in the back straight.

“Underneath that you’ve still got water sitting on the track, so we need the ice to thaw, the water to drain and all that has got to happen before Saturday in temperatures of minus 5C, which is largely impossible.”