Newbury's Friday card called off

Tomorrow's meeting at Newbury, worth £49,500 in prize money, has been abandoned after an official inspection found parts of the track to be under water.

But hopes remain high that its prestigious £217,500 Saturday card, containing many key Cheltenham Festival prep-races, will go ahead.

Ground at the Berkshire track has deteriorated from a healthy 'soft, good-to-soft in places' on Monday to its current 'heavy' state, with appreciable waterlogging on the back straight. An unexpected deluge on Tuesday night first put Newbury's two-day meeting in doubt and a further 8.4mm fell last night.

With a dry forecast ahead, track officials admitted prospects for Saturday's card have increased with news that the preceding day's meeting has been called off. Another inspection will be staged at 11am tomorrow.

"The track dried out nicely yesterday, but we had a third of an inch of rain overnight and the hurdles course is very wet in places," said clerk of the course, Mark Kershaw. "There isn't much rain forecast until Saturday afternoon and the track didn't take long to dry out yesterday, so that is encouraging."

As the big-name contenders are thought to hold sufficient alternative options, there are no plans to reschedule its main races, including the £100,000 Tote Gold Trophy Hurdle.

Both First Gold, ante-post favourite for next month's Tote Cheltenham Gold Cup, and Flagship Uberalles, who holds the same position in the Queen Mother Champion Chase betting, are set to run in Saturday's Aon and Mitsubishi Shogun Game Spirit Chases respectively.