Horse racing fixture list decimated by British weather

Racing over jumps at Ayr and on the all-weather at Wolverhampton was abandoned today as the freeze hitting Britain continued to decimate the horse racing calendar. The meeting at Ayr was abandoned in the early morning, after temperatures fell to as low as minus 7C overnight, not being expected to be above freezing until 10am. 

All sorts of work was put in at Dunstall Park but they had to admit defeat with clerk of the course Fergus Cameron explaining that though they had the track clear “unfortunately some of the equine associated areas around the track are unsafe.” 

The meeting is rescheduled for Wednesday along with cards on the all-weather at Lingfield and Kempton.

That is some good news as the card planned for Hexham on Wednesday was called off on Tuesday, with clerk of the course James Armstrong tweeting: "5th hard frost on the bounce (-3c last night) @HexhamRaces & sadly Racing on Weds has been abandoned due to a frozen track & insufficient time for a decent thaw." Leicester has sadly also been lost already with temperatures of minus 8C recorded overnight.

Things are looking up as the week progresses and Newcastle plays host to a jumps fixture on Thursday, and although frozen in places, the milder forecast means they are at least hopeful of running and will inspect at 8am on Thursday. The will inspect at Warwick as well on Thursday morning as they are still under several centimetres of snow whilst Taunton at least looks likely to go ahead. They are also on the polytrack at Chelmsford.