Horse Racing: Bleak mid winter for turf racing

Prospects of turf racing before Christmas look bleak as the second big freeze of the winter continues to bite with Musselburgh's Wednesday meeting just one of the casualties.

The seaside track made an early decision to abandon due to frost and snow. The course is currently frozen and with two inches of snow laying on top of the track, it was an easy decision for general manager Bill Farnsworth. "We've had to abandon. We've got snow at the moment and it's continuing to snow heavily," said Farnsworth.

"That's forecast to continue and we should get more snow showers during the week.

"Underneath the ground is frozen solid. Temperatures are between minus 3C and minus 5C overnight and only getting up to freezing during the day, so we've got no chance."

The only card remaining before Boxing Day is tomorrow at Sedgefield, where hopes were hanging on an inspection today.

"We had minus 6C overnight and it was minus 3Cyesterday," said clerk of the course Charlie Moore. "We're still going to have a look but we're obviously up against it. There is some warm air arriving later in the week, but it looks like it's going to come too late for us."

The other remaining jumps fixtures before Christmas - at Hereford tomorrow and Ludlow on Wednesday - have all fallen by the wayside.

With the last jumps meeting held in Britain at Cheltenham on December 11 a fading memory, all eyes turn to Kempton and the William Hill King George VI Chase on Sunday.

Officials at the Sunbury remain optimistic despite the abandonment of yesterday's all-weather fixture because of snow.

Clerk of the course Barney Clifford said: "The snow is on the covers and it got down to minus 7C on Saturday night.

"On inspection yesterday morning I couldn't lift the covers to see what the ground was like underneath.

"One can only hope that the snow on the covers is insulating it and hopefully shouldn't be any worse than yesterday.

"The indication is for temperatures to start rising from Christmas Eve and we only need daytime temperatures to get up to 3C to dispel this snow.

"We will do our best and the primary objective is to get Boxing Day on. We are not thinking of inspecting at this stage and a lot can happen in a week.

"A week ago we were perfectly raceable and we deployed the covers, so it's fingers crossed."

Across the Irish Sea, hopes are high for the big four-day Christmas fixture at Leopardstown.

"We're not in bad condition," said racecourse manager Tom Burke. "The ground is soft at the moment."