Kempton gets green light, Lingfield off

Racing: Today’s twilight meeting at Kempton goes ahead after the track passed an inspection this morning, but Lingfield has …

Racing:Today's twilight meeting at Kempton goes ahead after the track passed an inspection this morning, but Lingfield has been abandoned due to snow.

Kempton was hit by around five centimetres of snow overnight and into the morning but conditions are raceable.

Having pushed back an original 7.30am inspection to 9.30am, clerk of the course Barney Clifford was finally able to give the meeting the green light just before 11am.

“Racing goes ahead,” said Clifford. “The snow is finally easing and we’ve got time to clear the areas.

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“The ground will probably ride quite slow as we’ve had to work the track pretty deep.”

Clerk of Lingfield Neil MacKenzie Ross inspected the track at 6.30am but opted to call a further check for 8.30am after an inch of snow fell at the all-weather venue.

However, following that inspection, MacKenzie Ross has called off the meeting as the snow has made the course inaccessible.

MacKenzie Ross explained: "It's not track-related, it's purely safety-related. "The snow has not relented and is coming down thick and fast so as soon as we are clearing it, it's laying again.

"The reports of the roads nearby are not good either with a few accidents and gridlock already, so we have abandoned on safety grounds."

The track is due to race on Thursday but MacKenzie Ross will take stock of the situation later on Wednesday before deciding whether an inspection will be necessary.

He added: "We will take a view on the forecast later in the day.

"This is more snow than we were forecast and there's a lot of work to do so we will see how it looks later today."