With the weather causing chaos there may be no jump racing in Britain on Sunday with Exeter already abandoned and Newcastle facing an inspection.
Friday’s jump cards at Sandown and Bangor have also fallen victim to the elements with Saturday’s Uttoxeter fixture also in doubt.
Uttoxeter inspect at 1pm on Friday, while the main card at Newbury is currently raceable but has areas of concern on the track.
Newbury’s clerk of the course George Hill said: “We’ve had more rain in the last 24 hours than we were forecast. We ended up with over 17mm and we were initially forecast 8-12mm.
“The hurdle track is heavy, there’s two small areas of standing water this morning and it hasn’t really stopped so it hasn’t had a chance to soak in. Those two small patches to be honest we can get around anyway so the track is raceable.
“The chase track is absolutely fine although that is heavy, soft in places but there’s no issues whatsoever with the chase track. We’re forecast between now and racing a further 7-10mm but we just need a couple of dry hours really for it to soak through the profile.
“I’ll have another walk at 3pm and give an update because there’s further showers so we’ll know if the course has got worse or if we don’t get as much in the showers as expected the course may improve.
“It looks like it going to be dry into the evening until the early hours where we’re due showers on and off from 3am, which I’m not too worried about.
“It’s raceable now, I’m just being transparent with those two small areas but you can bypass the last hurdle down the back and move the bend in more. If we get a break in the rain that will help us out. We’re looking forward to what looks a good card.”
Exeter brought forward an inspection and had no choice but to call off Sunday’s card after receiving 35mm of rain on Thursday and another 17mm on Friday, while Newcastle will inspect on Saturday at 9am ahead of Sunday. An extra Flat meeting at Chelmsford has been scheduled.
Across the Irish Sea at Navan, Sunday’s card is also under threat after a total of 35mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours.
They will hold on inspection on Saturday afternoon and clerk of the course Brian Hamilton said: “From later today we do have a more favourable forecast and it is to be mainly dry and breezy tomorrow into Sunday.
“Due to the current conditions and the favourable forecast we will have an inspection at 3pm on Saturday to assess the situation and we’ll give a further update then.”