The weather played havoc with racing fixtures throughout the weekend and across the country.
Rules racing saw Musselburgh on Friday called off just 6 minutes before the first race with horses already in the parade ring.
This was followed by Sandown, Wincanton and Newcastle on Saturday all being cancelled. Sunday saw Plumpton pulled, with Chepstow initially going ahead but abandoning after the second race. Only all-weather racing went ahead as planned.
Point-to-Point lost its weekend fixtures at Alnwick in Northumberland and Larkhill in Wiltshire, which had both been scheduled for Sunday.
It was an easy decision for Alnwick who had a course inspection on Friday followed by another on Saturday morning. Fixture Secretary Nick Hargreaves explained at the time that Saturday’s temperature was lower than forecast, and with thicker cloud than expected there was less sun to thaw the ground. It was therefore obvious racing couldn’t go ahead the following day, so the decision was made early to call the fixture off and not re-schedule.
Larkhill was faced with a much tougher decision after an inspection on Saturday afternoon showed a few frozen patches, particularly on rougher ground.
However, it was hoped that rising temperatures and some rain would thaw and soften the patches. The weather forecast was for rain throughout the night and temperatures rising quickly from 4am, so the only sensible option was to hold a further inspection around 7am on Sunday.
Unfortunately, that inspection showed some ground still frozen, although with a chance it may have thawed by race time. However, it was decided that it was fairer and in everyone’s best interests to make the call to cancel the fixture, and hopefully before most people had set off.
Paul Miller, PPA Chief Executive said “ It was a tough one and I do feel for them. They were in constant contact with the PPA office over the weekend, keeping us updated. They did the sensible thing in having a further inspection early Sunday, trying to get the balance right between not calling off unnecessarily and not calling off too late. They had also looked at starting slightly later and running races 30 minutes apart, but in the end put the interests of racegoers and participants first and made the call to cancel. Hopefully not too many people had set off before the decision was made”.
Fortunately after the Medics, Vets and volunteers all pulled together, plus the coming weekends fixture Committees and the MoD (who own Larkhill) gave the green light, the fixture has now been rescheduled for Saturday 11th Jan with all entries standing.