Ludlow and Lingfield call off Monday fixtures

An all-weather card at Wolverhampton will – hopefully – fly the flag for British racing on Monday after National Hunt fixtures at Ludlow and Lingfield were both abandoned due to frozen tracks.

While jumps meetings at Sandown and Cork did survive the cold snap on Saturday, Sunday’s meetings at Plumpton and Chepstow and a Grade One fixture at Naas were called off and there is no sign of a significant upturn in temperatures in the immediate forecast.

However, the chances of avoiding a blank day on Monday do rest on a precautionary inspection at the Dunstall Park circuit at 9.30am given the forecast for a light band of snow.

Officials at Ludlow had announced an inspection for 10am on Sunday ahead of Monday’s scheduled meeting, but made an early decision to draw stumps.

Clerk of the course Simon Sherwood said: “It wasn’t a difficult decision. On Friday we could have raced, on Saturday at 12pm we couldn’t have raced, but that was after declarations, obviously.

“We got hammered with a minus 5C last night and it’s still minus 1C or 2C at the moment, so it was a non-starter and I think tonight and tomorrow is due to be a little bit worse.”

The team at Lingfield called a check for noon on Sunday, but they were also able to make an early call.

“We got down to minus 7.7C overnight and looking at the forecast there are just insufficient temperatures for us to be able to race tomorrow,” said clerk of the course Stephanie Wethered.

Tuesday will also be a blank jumps day as Musselburgh’s fixture has already been called off, while Wednesday’s meeting at Leicester already looks in serious doubt, with the track currently frozen and an inspection called for 8am on Monday.