Catterick the latest to fall

Catterick's meeting on Thursday has been abandoned following an inspection on Wednesday afternoon.

Clerk of the course Fiona Needham had been hopeful after taking a look at the track in the morning, with no frost overnight.

However, after several hard frosts in recent days the ground was not expected to recover in time for racing to take place.

"We did get up to three degrees but unfortunately it just hasn't come out quickly enough," said Needham.

"The latest forecast I have for tonight says the temperature could get down to minus one. That decided it for us.

"It hasn't got warm enough quickly enough and the course is still frozen in places."

Hereford have also abandoned their meeting on Thursday after the cold snap left the track frozen.

Officials inspected the course on Wednesday morning and with the track already unraceable and temperatures unlikely to improve they were forced to call the meeting off.

Clerk of the course Katie Stephens said: "There's been no improvement and although the temperature didn't drop as low as forecast last night, the track really does need a couple of days of milder weather in the daytime."

Thursday's meeting at Thurles has also been abandoned due to frost following a 9am inspection on Wednesday.

Friday's meeting at Huntingdon remains in doubt while Saturday's Warwick fixture is also under threat despite warmer temperatures.

Huntingdon faces an 8.30am inspection on Thursday to determine prospects for racing but officials are no more than hopeful with the course still in poor condition.

"The track is currently frozen. We've had a week of frost with temperatures reaching a low of minus seven and not getting up overnight since Saturday at any point above minus two," said clerk of the course Andrew Morris.

"We've got another two nights of frost forecast between now and Friday morning with temperatures of minus four overnight and during the daytime not reaching maybe plus two or three.

"If the forecast is correct and we have another couple of nights of freezing temperatures then we are going to struggle.

"It is a lot milder today but what does not fill us with a lot of confidence is that the track is still well frozen at this stage.

"Having had a pretty mild day today we would have liked to have seen a lot more improvement than we have done."

Warwick has been frozen since they lost their New Year's Eve fixture and an inspection at 3.30pm on Thursday with further freezing temperatures forecast.

"At this stage we believe we have to take a proper look tomorrow afternoon and take a view with regard to our chances of racing on Saturday," said Morris, who is also in charge at Warwick.

"We are due another couple of nights of frost and there has been no improvement today.

"There is some talk of improvement over the weekend though my reaction is that it might come too late. We want to have a good look tomorrow afternoon and update everyone from there."