Racing: Horse Racing Ireland has postponed tomorrow's race meeting at Punchestown until Wednesday, January 20th, because of the freezing conditions which are playing havoc with the weekend's sport. Fresh entries for the meeting will close at noon on Thursday, January 14th with declarations to be made by 10am on Tuesday, January 19th.
Full programme details of the meeting will be published on Monday.
Sunday's abandoned Leopardstown meeting has been transferred to Saturday, January 23rd, while the meeting at Navan which was originally scheduled for this date will now take place on Wednesday, January 27th.
Leopardstown now stage a top-class weekend of National Hunt racing, with the feature race on Saturday's card being the MCR Hurdle.
The Toshiba Irish Champion Hurdle takes centre stage on Sunday.
Cross-channel there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel for National Hunt enthusiasts with another two of next week's meetings already abandoned.
Last Sunday's meeting at Plumpton was the last turf fixture to be held in Britain and with the cold snap showing no signs of ending, it may be another week before the jumpers are back in action on turf.
Monday meetings at Ayr and Taunton fell by the wayside earlier in the week and Tuesday's action is heading the same way with Newcastle having made an early decision to abandon and Leicester checking at 3.30pm on Saturday.
Newcastle's clerk of the course James Armstrong said: "It's still minus 6C and, with the temperature as it is, the snow is likely to take a good week to thaw.
"We're going to have to hope for a good thaw with a drying wind next week if we are to race on January 20."
Leicester's clerk of the course Jimmy Stevenson added: "We have around two inches of snow on the track and everything is frozen solid.
"We're still below freezing here now so we'll see what the situation is on Saturday."
The picture is no brighter on Wednesday with Kelso officials calling off their fixture and Doncaster's clerk of the course David Williams pessimistic ahead of a 12pm inspection on Monday.
Kelso head groundsman Brian Meikle said: "We had another two inches of snow last night on top of the 16 inches that were already there and temperatures dipped down to minus 12C.
"We were going to wait until Monday to make a decision but there just isn't any point as there is no chance of racing."
Williams added: "The immediate forecast in the next five days is for minus 6C to minus 7C each night, with temperatures barely rising above freezing.
"It's looking pretty bleak at the moment."
Reports from the all-weather fixtures are mixed with Lingfield and Southwell being left to fly the flag on Friday after Wolverhampton's abandonment.
Although the Polytrack surface at Dunstall Park was not frozen, particles of compressed ice within the track proved a major stumbling block.
Clerk of the course Fergus Cameron said: "We managed to remove the snow yesterday and worked the track this morning.
"There has been a significant improvement, but there are still a few lumps of ice in the track.
"There is insufficient confidence in a rise in temperature to bring about further improvement."
Lingfield and Kempton are the two scheduled Saturday meetings, but both must pass a 6.30am inspection due to the threat of further snow.
Clerk of the course Barney Clifford said: "We've just received an updated forecast and we could get between three and five centimetres of snow tonight.
"We are perfectly raceable at the moment and the ambulance cover is sorted as well so it's all about the weather."