Haydock and Wincanton call morning inspections

Saturday’s high-profile meetings at Haydock and Wincanton will both need to pass morning inspections as Britain continues to feel the effects of Storm Eunice.

It was left to Kelso to fly the flag for racing in Britain on Friday after scheduled fixtures at Fakenham, Lingfield and Southwell all had to be abandoned.

Officials at Fakenham made an early decision to call off proceedings on Thursday due to the worrying forecast, while all-weather cards at Lingfield and Southwell were cancelled on Friday morning.

Lingfield’s all-weather track was due to stage a seven-race card, but with a red weather warning issued for parts of the south east, the safety of participants took precedence.

Haydock’s clerk Kirkland Tellwright is hoping the worst of the weather will have passed through by the time racing is due to take place on Saturday.

An 8am precautionary check has been called due to the threat of further rain on already heavy ground.

He said: “The main concern around this stormy weather has been the wind, which would be a problem on a raceday but shouldn’t be an issue the day before.

“I think when Saturday comes it’ll be blustery, but having walked the course a couple of times, I’m pretty optimistic that we’ll get through.”

Daniel Cooper, clerk of the course at Wincanton, has had no option but to call a check for 7.30am, with damage to the site meaning the course is not currently fit to stage racing.

He said: “We had a bad hour from around midday to 1pm, which caused some immediate damage.

“We’re currently in a position where we are unraceable, so my head groundsman is trying to draft in a team to try to fix what is broken.

“The ground is in a lovely place, severe wind is the issue and we’ve had a bit more damage than we were probably anticipating.

“We’re drafting a recovery plan for Saturday morning which involves having staff in from first thing and we’ll rally around to try to fix things.”