Cold snap bites as Hexham frozen off

Wednesday afternoon’s meeting at Hexham became the first victim of a cold snap that is threatening several British fixtures this week.

Officials at the Northumberland venue announced a precautionary inspection for 8am due to the forecast of sub-zero temperatures overnight, but a second check was required and announced for 10am.

And while clerk of the course James Armstrong remained “optimistic” earlier this morning that the fixture would go ahead, he ultimately called off proceedings due frozen divot mix on the track.

He said: “It’s not often after one night’s frost you get problems, but we got a millimetre or two of rain yesterday and it just wet the old material we used to fill the track in a couple of weeks ago.

“The rest of the track is fine, but unfortunately wherever we’ve got the divot mix it’s turned solid.

“Walking it earlier we thought we had a chance, but temperatures dropped further to minus 2C between 7.30am and 9am and unfortunately there’s too many areas to stone pick as such to ensure safety.”

Despite Hexham’s abandonment there will still be National Hunt racing in Britain on Wednesday after Leicester’s card was given the green light following a morning inspection.

However, officials at Warwick have called an 8am precautionary inspection ahead of Thursday’s meeting, while the team at Bangor will inspect at 8am on Friday ahead of a scheduled fixture that afternoon.