Newbury optimistic of the go-ahead (From The Northern Echo)

Newbury optimistic of the go-ahead

12:30pm Wednesday 8th February 2012 in Horse Racing News

AN ENCOURAGING weather forecast at Newbury saw the market for racing to go ahead at the weekend take an aboutturn.

The meeting sponsors Betfair warned the Berkshire track’s prestigious card was trading at around 8-11 to be abandoned during the morning and 11-10 to beat the freeze, but those prices had switched by mid-afternoon.

Clerk of the course Richard Osgood has already deployed frost covers and said: ‘‘Things haven’t changed much since yesterday and we are still good to soft, soft in places.

‘‘At the moment, we are going to get a frost tonight, which will probably be the worst frost we have all week, and temperatures will not get up much tomorrow when it will be about 1C and cloudy.

‘‘There will be another frost tomorrow night, but not as bad as tonight.

‘‘Moving into Thursday it should again be up to about 2C and down to about zero overnight and there is a weather front coming through from the south-west and they think that would bring a mixture of rain, sleet and snow.

‘‘It should be just above zero on Friday night and moving to 3C or 4C on Saturday.’’’ The midweek programme continues to be plagued by the frost and snow, but one bright spot comes with Musselburgh stepping in to stage last weekend’s abandoned meeting this Saturday instead.

The East Lothian course was thwarted by the weather when attempting to hold their big jumping card last Sunday, which features the John Smith’s Scottish Champion Chase, John Smith’s Scottish Triumph Hurdle and John Smith’s Future Champions Novices’ Chase.

Kempton’s all-weather card is the only action today with Ludlow and Carlisle joining Lingfield in waving the white flag.

Tomorrow’s meeting at Doncaster has also been abandoned due to frost and snow, and Huntingdon is under threat on the same afternoon and an inspection has been called for 8am.

􀁧 Last Instalment will put his unbeaten record over fences on the line in the Dr. P.J. Moriarty Novice at Leopardstown on Sunday.

Philip Fenton’s seven-yearold has barely come off the bridle on each of his three starts this season, completing the hat-trick with a brilliant Grade One-winning performance at Leopardstown over Christmas.

Fenton said: ‘‘We’ve been happy with him since he ran at Christmas. The ground was fairly good the last day and I see that it has dried out a bit at Leopardstown over the last few days, but that isn’t a worry.

‘‘The plan is that he’ll run and he seems to be in great shape.’’