Horse racing: It's snow go on Monday as Musselburgh falls victim to the big freeze

Published on Thursday 2 December 2010 15:00

Musselburgh's meeting on Monday is the latest to be abandoned due to the weather.

The venue has been hit by 26 centimetres of snow, meaning there is no chance of the meeting going ahead.

Even if the course was raceable, concerns would be for racegoers and staff getting to the track.

"We've called racing off, there was nothing else we could do," said clerk of the course Harriet Graham. "The slight window we had in the forecast has now disappeared. We had another two to three inches of snow last night and continue to have snow flurries.

"Even if we were raceable nobody could get here."

Elswehere, Howard Johnson remains hopeful Tidal Bay can emerge a realistic Gold Cup contender when he heads to Cheltenham for next month's Cotswold Chase.

The nine-year-old was a brilliant winner of the Arkle Trophy at the 2008 Festival, but his form has since been very much up and down, with connections switching him back to hurdles with some success in recent times. He returned to larger obstacles on his latest start in the Betfair Chase at Haydock and showed he retains all of his old ability when beating all bar reigning Gold Cup hero Imperial Commander.

Johnson is keen to keep Tidal Bay over fences for the time being. "He's fine at the moment and we're looking at the race at Cheltenham in January for him," said Johnson. "He's difficult to catch right but I think he needs extreme distance nowadays. He ran well at Haydock but he could really have done with another couple of furlongs.

"We'll see how he gets on next time but if he runs well we could think about the Gold Cup, because the race would suit him well and he loves running up that hill."