Sandown falls foul of the weather

Saturday’s fixture at Sandown has been abandoned due to waterlogging following an inspection this afternoon.

The circuit, which was set to stage the Grade One 32Red Tolworth Hurdle, was hit by further heavy rain during the afternoon, prompting clerk of the course Andrew Cooper to bring forward a planned Saturday morning check.

Parts of both the chase course and the hurdles track are waterlogged.

Cooper told Racing UK: “The rain this afternoon has left with at least two places where it is definitely unraceable at the moment, and we’ve no option of where we could in terms of rails and bypassing those particular areas.

“We’re faced with a forecast saying we could get more showers later in the day, plus other pieces of rain tomorrow morning. We’d got to the stage where we would be delaying the inevitable.”

Wincanton’s Saturday card is subject to a 7am precautionary inspection on raceday morning.

Officials at the Somerset venue need to check conditions a second time following an upbeat assessment on Friday.

The going is heavy, with some standing water on the chase course.

Clerk of the course Barry Johnson said: “We’ve had 13mm of overnight rain, but the track has taken that brilliantly.

“There’s a bit of standing water on the chase track, but there’s a few more showers forecast today and through tonight.

“But the way the track’s taken the rain today I think we’ll be fine.”

Plumpton’s meeting on Sunday, due to feature the At The Races Sussex National, must pass an 11am inspection on Saturday morning.

The going is heavy, waterlogged in places, and more rain has been forecast.

Clerk of the course Mark Cornford said: “I’ve been optimistic throughout the week, but the rain is slowly defeating us a little, shall we say.

“The forecasts we’ve had for the week have been pretty near the mark.

“Overnight there was 13mm of rainfall, but it looks like today is going to be blustery with the odd shower.

“The forecast is, though, not so great overnight — we could 12 to 14mm (of rain).

“We are up against it, no doubt about it.”

On this side of the Irish Sea, 10 millimetres of overnight rain has left the ground heavy for Saturday’s meeting at Cork.

There is more rain forecast, but officials at the Mallow venue believe there are reasons for optimism.

A Cork spokesperson said: “We missed out on the very heavy rain in Cork city and we are totally raceable today.

“We were in a bad state earlier in the week, but the drainage on the course has worked very well.

“The forecast for the next 24 hours is mixed, with storms and scattered showers.”

Jumps racing on Saturday is also scheduled at Newcastle, who said there are “no problems envisaged” if the forecast is correct.

Despite having taken 32mm of rain since December 21st, the going at Gosforth Park is heavy, soft in places.

The situation is less clear-cut ahead of Monday’s meeting at Taunton.

An 11am inspection on Saturday morning has been called, with the ground heavy, waterlogged in places.

Taunton chief executive Bob Young said: “Hopefully we’ll be OK, but we’re just going to have to take things day by day.

“We’ve had nearly three inches of rain since the meeting on Monday and we’re waterlogged in places.

“We all know there are storms around so we’re likely to get more rain tonight and again on Saturday.

“We’ll see where we are at 11am. If it’s a hopeless situation we’ll have to call it off as there is more rain to come, but if not then we’ll keep going.

“It is too early to say whether we’ll be racing or not. We just want to mark everyone’s card.”

In football,Charlton’s FA Cup third-round tie with Oxford on Saturday became the first victim of the bad weather this weekend after being postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

A failed pitch inspection took place at The Valley at 11am on Friday and the decision was quickly made to call off the cup tie. The match will now be played on Wednesday, January 8th.