Frozen track claims Wednesday’s Leicester card

Wednesday will be another blank day for British jumps action after the scheduled card at Leicester was called off due to a frozen track.

Officials called an inspection for 8am on Monday to make an early assessment of conditions and with track already unraceable and further freezing temperatures forecast, clerk of the course Jimmy Stevenson felt it was a straightforward decision to cancel the card.

He said: “We have abandoned, we got down to -8C which would certainly be our coldest night of this winter so far.

“We’re forecast the same again for tomorrow and then slightly better for Wednesday but it won’t come in time for us as the frost is really in the ground now.”

Saturday’s meeting at Sandown was the last National Hunt fixture to go ahead in Britain, with the next planned cards at Taunton and Catterick on Thursday, although the last-named track has called an 8am inspection on Tuesday.