Freezing weather leaves blank day of jumping in Britain and Ireland

Racegoers were left without any National Hunt or afternoon action on Saturday after freezing temperatures claimed the meetings at Sandown and Wincanton.

A forecast of frost and even fog had given Sandown officials cause for concern on Friday, leaving clerk of the course Andrew Cooper to announce a precautionary 7.30am inspection.

With temperatures minus 2C since midnight and still minus 2C around inspection time and not expected to be above freezing until 11am, an early decision was able to made with the course frozen in places.

At Wincanton, an inspection was brought forward after temperatures fell to minus 4.2C overnight, leaving the Somerset track frozen in places and unraceable.

Newcastle’s jumps card had already been abandoned on Friday, leaving a blank day of National Hunt action in Britain, while a frozen track at Cork meant no jumping in Ireland, either.

The only two fixtures to survive the weather were on the all-weather at Southwell and Wolverhampton, with scheduled start times of 2.47pm and 4.20pm respectively.

A spokesperson for the British Horseracing Authority said it was “regrettable” the sport had been left without afternoon fare, adding: “The BHA has monitored the situation throughout the week, including communicating with colleagues at Sandown, Newcastle and Wincanton, and ultimately took the decision not to reschedule another meeting into the afternoon time slot. Unfortunately, the weather has gone against us on this occasion.

“The BHA understands the significance of ensuring that there is live racing on free-to-air television on Saturday afternoons and works hard to ensure this is the case, and will continue to do so in future. However, when circumstances remain challenging, and race times cannot be brought forward by Rule following the declaration stage, there is always some limitation on what can be done to remedy the situation.”