Towton moved to new fixture at Ffos Las this weekend

The Grade Two Towton Novices’ Chase will be run at Ffos Las on Saturday, after the British Horseracing Authority announced two additional fixtures in light of the continued cold weather.

With officials at Wetherby making an early decision to abandon this weekend’s Towton meeting and high-profile cards at Kempton and Warwick also under threat, the BHA has moved to ensure some National Hunt action will take place following a blank Saturday last week.

Ffos Las is now due to stage a seven-race card with the ability to divide to eight, with the Towton Novices’ Chase the feature having been saved. Entries will close at 12pm on Thursday, with declarations to be made by 10am on Friday.

A BHA statement read: “The track at Ffos Las is currently raceable and offered the most realistic opportunity to get a jumps fixture on, with the latest forecast giving the fixture every chance of going ahead.

“While we are aware there remains an element of risk that adverse weather may result in these conditions changing, we feel it is important to put an opportunity in place to help provide jumps racing for participants and customers on Saturday afternoon.”

An additional afternoon all-weather meeting at Chelmsford has also been added, while Newcastle’s card that was previously scheduled to begin at 3.50pm will be brought forward approximately two hours to an earlier start time.

Freezing temperatures have decimated the racing programme in recent days. Taunton was a rare survivor on Wednesday, but Thursday’s meetings at Catterick and Newbury have been abandoned and scheduled cards at Doncaster and Huntingdon on Friday have also fallen by the wayside.

Wetherby’s clerk of the course Jonjo Sanderson said that prospects of racing in West Yorkshire on Saturday were “slimmer than me” earlier in the week, and he faced a straightforward decision following a 3.30pm inspection on Wednesday.

Sanderson said: “We’ve got snow, we’re frozen and we’re waterlogged, so it wasn’t a difficult decision!

“There’s still a huge amount of snow on the back straight particularly and we’ve also got widespread waterlogging down the back straight which over the past couple of days has slowly frozen over.

“Last night we had temperatures of minus 3.5C, so we’ve got ice that’s half an inch thick and basically an enormous frozen lake in the back straight.

“Underneath that you’ve still got water sitting on the track, so we need the ice to thaw, the water to drain and all that has got to happen before Saturday in temperatures of minus 5C, which is largely impossible.”

Warwick’s Classic Chase meeting on Saturday is also under serious threat, with an inspection called for 8am on Thursday. The course was unraceable on Wednesday due to areas of surface water on the hurdle track and frozen areas on the chase track.

No inspection has been announced at this stage ahead of a Kempton card featuring the Grade Two Silviniaco Conti Chase, but the track is forecast between three and five centimetres of snow on Wednesday night followed by three successive nights of sub-zero temperatures.