National Hunt tracks firmly on weather alert, as freeze moves in

PA Sport Reporters
January 14, 2024 4:57 pm

Lingfield, Haydock and Ascot all under cover ahead of the weekend.

Haydock and Lingfield are mobilising in an effort to protect their weekend meetings as Britain braces for the upcoming cold snap.

Lingfield is set to host its annual three-day Winter Million meeting from Friday to Sunday, so-called because of the GBP 1million in prize-money offered across the mixed Flat and jumps cards.

The fixture has coincided with challenging weather conditions before and will do so again, with minus temperatures expected throughout the week – as low as minus 5C.

The Flat card, scheduled for the Saturday, is held on the all-weather but is sandwiched on either side by two National Hunt days that include the Grade Two Lightning Novices Chase and the valuable Fleur De Lys Chase.

In light of the forecast the whole turf track has been covered, requiring 42 hands on deck and taking nearly 10 hours to give the course the best chance of repelling the impending freeze.

“We’re currently good to soft on the turf track, we put the fleece covers down yesterday,” said clerk of the course Stephanie Wethered on Sunday.

“We’ve got minus temperatures forecast so that’s why we got the covers down, to give us the best chance possible of getting the meeting on.

“We’ve tried to do everything possible ahead of the frost coming in and we’re hopeful we’ve given ourselves a fighting chance.”

Haydock has a seven-race fixture scheduled for Saturday, with the Grade Two Rossington Main Novices’ Hurdle the feature.

The forecast in Merseyside is subject to a yellow weather warning, with snow expected to fall in the early part of the week and freezing temperatures set to last until Thursday.

Clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright, clerk of the course at Haydock, said: “We’d be in a good place to race today but we’ve got a week of frost, the lowest temperatures are minus 4C and minus 5C, and I think under those circumstances we will be right to the wall.

“We’ve covered, for what it’s worth, all the back straight and the take-offs and landings, but I’d be doubtful of that being enough.

“I would say I’m not optimistic, but we’ll take it as we come. There’s no need to be taking any decisions now, we’ll give it every chance and see how we get on.”

The weekend’s other major meeting is at Ascot, where frost covers and fleece were deployed on Friday. The headline event at the Berkshire track is the Clarence House Chase, in which the Willie Mullins-trained El Fabiolo and Nicky Henderson’s Jonbon are due to clash.

Monday’s meeting at Hereford and Tuesday’s fixture at Plumpton are both subject to morning inspections as racecourses across Britain brace themselves for freezing temperatures this week.

An 8am precautionary inspection has been called ahead of Hereford’s Monday jumps card, but clerk of the course John Holliday is “optimistic” racing will go ahead.

Tuesday’s meeting at Plumpton is subject to an 8.30am inspection on raceday morning.

The course has been frost free since Friday, but the mercury is forecast to dip below freezing on Monday morning and temperatures could get as low as minus 3C on Monday night.

In Ireland, Punchestown will inspect at 7.30am on Monday morning as minus temperatures are expected to strike across the Irish Sea too.