Catterick abandoned but racing goes ahead at Wolverhampton

Catterick’s jumps meeting on Thursday has been abandoned due to a frozen track, but Wolverhampton passed a second inspection meaning racing resumed in the UK.

The North Yorkshire racecourse succumbed to the weather following the freezing temperatures across Britain, which resulted in no racing action at all on Monday.

“It was -6C overnight. We’ve had progressive hard frost down to -6C with wind chill, but last night was just general -6C,” clerk of the course Fiona Needham said.

“I mean it’s deep in the ground and although it’s not forecast to be as cold, it is still forecast to be below freezing so there’s no prospect of it coming out.”

Wolverhampton, which failed a second check on Monday, passed a second look at 10am on Tuesday with racing delayed by one hour meaning a 2.15pm start.

“We worked the track overnight and temperatures having risen quite significantly, but we had a further three-quarters of an inch of snow this morning,” said clerk of the course Fergus Cameron.

“So the forecast is for temperatures to keep rising to 3C to 4C this afternoon and having worked the track overnight, the track was good underneath.”

Huntingdon have called a 9am inspection on Wednesday morning ahead of Friday’s jumps card.