With today's Naas card abandoned and tomorrow's Fairyhouse meeting hinging on an inspection this morning, racing followers will be hoping today's Ascot card goes ahead. However, the chances of the fixture taking place depends largely on the weathermen getting their forecasts wrong, Ascot's clerk of the course Nick Cheyne admitted yesterday.

Cheyne will inspect the track at 8.00 this morning and seemingly only the non-arrival of "substantial" rain forecast for last night will allow the card to proceed.

The ground is currently "soft, heavy in places" on the chase course and "heavy" on the hurdles course and Cheyne commented: "It is raining at the moment and with the forecast for heavy overnight rain, we will have an inspection in the morning.

"If the forecast is correct, I wouldn't be over-optimistic. The forecast is for substantial overnight rain, but forecasts have been wrong before.

"According to the Weather Centre there is an intense band of rain moving down at between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., through to 5 a.m. or 6 a.m."

Should the meeting fall to the weather, the Victor Chandler, with £45,000 guaranteed prize money, will be staged on Ascot's fixture next Friday, which also includes the PML Lightning Novices' Chase.

The meeting at Warwick must also pass an inspection, at 7.45 a.m., and its fate also hinges on what goes on during the night, according to clerk of the course Lisa Rowe.

"At the moment we are very much raceable - we have literally had only 1 1/2mm today - and it is all wind as opposed to rain," she said.

"The forecast is the only thing that is giving me concern, so what I will do is have a precautionary inspection at 7.45 a.m. tomorrow, just to assess what has happened overnight.

"But at the moment there is no problem so I am doing that inspection purely on the forecast.

"But we don't want to get caught out, so we will have a look so we can get it on all the early bulletins.

"There is wind and rain coming in. There are very strong winds, which we have got now, so how much rain we get is anyone's guess.

"The ground on the chase track is soft, heavy in places, and on the hurdle track is heavy, soft in places."

One man likely to tune in to the racing broadcasts is Martin Pipe, who has declared no fewer than 10 horses for today's row's qualifier for the Cheltenham Festival's Stakis Casinos Handicap Hurdle.

The other turf card today, at Newcastle, where the feature race is the Grade Two Northern Echo Dipper Novices' Chase, looks safe.

Newcastle's clerk of the course David McAllister reported: "We haven't had any rain. The going is soft - I am taking out the heavy patches.

"We have got gale force winds, but those are due to come down slowly during the evening, and tomorrow, sunshine and showers.

"We might get a drop of rain but we haven't had anything today except for one five-minute shower."

McAllister's counterpart at Plumpton, David McHarg, is confident its meeting scheduled for Monday will beat the weather, despite the forecast of further rainfall.

Yesterday morning McHarg described the ground on the track as heavy but raceable, and has no plans to hold an inspection unless there is a deterioration in conditions.

Wind and rain was forecast in East Sussex last night and today, followed by dry and windy weather until Monday.