It was as close to a racing certainty as you will ever get that Thursday’s jumps meetings at Wincanton and Fakenham would succumb to the cold weather and the prospects are worrying for National Hunt racing both on Saturday, with Musselburgh’s pre-Cheltenham Festival card having already succumbed on Thursday lunchtime.
Sandown’s clerk of the course Andrew Cooper described the outlook for the Esher course’s Saturday fixture as “challenging but not a lost cause” in a tweet on Thursday morning, stating: “Coldest night of the winter @Sandownpark at -6.7. Frozen in places, including under these shaded covers. Will lift this pm in advance of forecast 2cm snow. Will update Friday morning. Clearly challenging but not a lost cause.”
Coldest night of the winter @Sandownpark at -6.7. Frozen in places, including under these shaded covers. Will lift this pm in advance of forecast 2cm snow. Will update Friday morning. Clearly challenging but not a lost cause. pic.twitter.com/92G8adL9Vm
— Andrew Cooper (@ACooperClerk) January 31, 2019
Prospects for Musselburgh’s Cheltenham Trials weekend card were bleak and a scheduled Thursday lunchtime inspection for Saturday’s racing confirmed the worst with the racecourse tweeting news of the abandonment. Musselburgh general manager Bill Farnsworth said: “[We] will seek the opportunity to stage an extra fixture which will meet the needs of horses that would otherwise have raced at our bet365 Scottish Cheltenham Trials weekend.” Wetherby, meanwhile, have called an inspection at 8am on Friday for racing on Saturday. The course is frozen in places.
In advance of a planned inspection at 8am on Thursday, Catterick announced its fixture on Friday has been abandoned after temperatures dropped to -7C overnight in North Yorkshire. Chepstow’s Friday card also followed suit after a Thursday afternoon inspection.
The picture looks much more promising for the Irish, however, as most of their main trials for the Cheltenham Festival in March are concentrated over the two days of the Dublin Festival this weekend. There is little concern at present that the meeting will not beat the weather, and several of the most significant contenders for the Festival will get their pre-Cheltenham prep race according to schedule.
British trainers, though, are already starting to consider Plan Bs for some of their better horses, and if the cold snap were to extend into the latter part of next week – which is hardly without precedent – it could start to become a serious concern. “Jumpers Bumpers” meetings on the all-weather at Kempton are all very well, but still not quite a match for a proper race when a horse is being readied for the Festival.
Ireland has battered the British at the last three Cheltenham Festivals, with 17, 19 and 15 winners counting backwards, which is all the more extraordinary when you consider not only that it is an “away” game for Irish trainers, but also the relative sizes and scale of jump racing in Britain and Ireland.
There were about 16,000 National Hunt races in Ireland in 2018 and twice that number in Britain, a difference which was reflected in runners at the Festival, with Ireland fielding 150 and Britain 308. British stables, though, had just 11 winners, just under 40% of the total. If Ireland’s main yards enjoy a trouble-free run-in to the Festival while Britain struggles with the cold, it will certainly be something to consider if you are having a bet on the number of Irish winners or the BetBright Cup.
Southwell and Newcastle are riding to the rescue for British punters on Thursday and Champagne Rules (4.05) has plenty to recommend him at around 5-2 in the opener at the latter track. He was an impressive winner in a good time at Wolverhampton earlier in the month and has gone up 7lb as a result, but the form may well be even better than it appears as he was not suited by the way the race developed and he made up plenty of ground before going clear in the closing stages.
Eve Harrington (7.00), who famously got loose and jumped out of a plane onto the runway at Stansted after arriving from the sales in America as a yearling in 2017, bids to follow up her recent win later on the same card, while Melgate Magic (2.40) and Sooqan (4.10) both have decent chances at current prices on the Fibresand at Southwell.
Wincanton 1.25 Southfield Stone 1.55 Broughtons Rhythm 2.25 Danse Idol 3.00 Myplaceatmidnight 3.30 Magic Saint 4.00 Caid Du Berlais 4.30 Eritage
Southwell 1.35 Piazon 2.05 Siyahamba 2.40 Melgate Magic (nb) 3.10 Scale Force 3.40 Havelock 4.10 Sooqan
Fakenham 1.45 Regarding Ruth 2.15 Emerald Chieftan 2.50 Heresmynumber 3.20 Coole Well 3.50 Brandon Castle 4.20 Edgar
Newcastle 4.05 Champagne Rules (nap) 4.40 Bobby Joe Leg 5.15 One One Seven 5.50 Cuppacoco 6.25 Deansgate 7.00 Eve Harrington 7.30 Lion Hearted 8.00 Roaring Rory
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