BAD news for all of us who had excused ourselves from a trip to the January Sales on the grounds of work commitments at Ayr. Or was that just me?
We're going to have come up with another excuse.
As had been widely predicted, it didn't take officials at the Craigie venue long to decide at yesterday morning's inspection that unless the runners wore ice skates, there was no chance of racing ta
king place either today or tomorrow.
"The track is completely frozen," explained Clerk of the course, Katherine Self. "We got down to minus four last night and we have another minus five forecast tonight so we have no chance of racing and have had to abandon."
With so many fixtures falling by the wayside, Kempton will stage an extra meeting on the sand tomorrow when armchair punters may have to gorge themselves on a menu of nothing but all-weather fayre.
This afternoon's other jumps card at Folkestone is predicted to have a decent chance of beating the cold snap but we've heard that sort of optimistic talk before and it's all gone pear shaped, so fingers crossed that it gets the go-ahead.
Ruby Crown has been one of the contributory factors to the resurgence of Kim Bailey this season and the mare can add another win to her trainer's tally by landing the novices' handicap hurdle and while Khatiman was a disappointing nap last time out, a drop back in trip may see him in a better light in the finale.
Mr Big didn't show much in his first couple of starts for Charlie Mann after arriving from Ireland but his last two runs have been much more encouraging. In the first of them, he chased home Priest Field at Hereford and then had to settle for second again behind Burgess Hill at Plumpton. Mr Big was eventually well beaten that day but he travelled well for most of the race and did his cause no good at all with a mistake at the second last. Now he's clearly acclimatised to British racing, he looks the best bet of the day.
The full article contains 365 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
