Hexham racing off, Doncaster covering up as big freeze bites

Officials at the Northumberland venue announced a precautionary inspection for 8am due to the forecast of sub-zero temperatures overnight, but a second check was required and announced for 10am.

And while clerk of the course James Armstrong remained “optimistic” that the fixture would go ahead, he ultimately called off proceedings due to frozen divot mix on the track.

He said: “It’s not often after one night’s frost you get problems, but we got a millimetre or two of rain yesterday and it just wet the old material we used to fill the track in a couple of weeks ago.

“The rest of the track is fine, but unfortunately wherever we’ve got the divot mix it’s turned solid.

“Walking it earlier we thought we had a chance, but temperatures dropped further to minus 2C between 7.30am and 9am and unfortunately there’s too many areas to stone pick as such to ensure safety.”

Officials at Warwick have called an 8am precautionary inspection ahead of Thursday’s meeting, while there will be a 7.30am precautionary check at Newcastle to decide whether racing can go ahead on the same day. Clonmel also inspect at 8am.

The team at Bangor, meanwhile, have already announced they will inspect at 8am on Friday ahead of a scheduled fixture that afternoon.

Cheltenham and Doncaster are both deploying frost covers for their respective two-day weekend cards, which both start on Friday.

Paul Barker, clerk of the course at Doncaster: “Straight after racing on Friday evening, there will be a huge team to start fleecing up as much as we can, as quick as we can, in readiness for Saturday’s meeting.

“The biggest challenge on Friday night is how quickly temperatures drop and we have to tread the track and make the track as safe as we can, as quickly as we can and at the same time follow the treaders straight through to get the fleecing down. We will have lots of bodies there and we will give it every effort we can.”

Doncaster’s Saturday card features the Grade Two bet365 December Novices’ Chase and the Listed Summit Juvenile Hurdle.

Barker added: “On both days there is quality and hopefully we can get both days on. We watered parts on Monday, finished it off this (Tuesday) morning and we will technically see what is underneath on Friday morning. With a bit of luck and a lot of hard work, we will have two good days’ racing.”

Day one of the International meeting at Cheltenham is subject to a precautionary inspection at 7.30am on Friday.

There was a frosty scene at Prestbury Park on Wednesday morning after temperatures in the Cotswolds dipped to minus 4C on Tuesday night.

Frost covers were laid on Wednesday afternoon – but with temperatures struggling to get above freezing even during the day ahead of the high-profile meeting, clerk of the course Jon Pullin has made an early decision to announce an inspection.