Ascot to Inspect for 2011 Long Walk Hurdle

Snow in the forecast at Ascot tomorrow has prompted an inspection of the grounds scheduled for 8 am tomorrow, local time. Big Buck's is the headline on the Ascot card as this 3m1f hurdles contest is set to feature seven contenders. Dynaste has emerged from a respectable seasonal debut to be the second-favourite in the betting against the talented Paul Nicholls-trained gelding – an impressive stat for a five-year-old.

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It was announced that frost covers would be heading out onto the track on Friday with temperatures expected to dip down towards -1 degrees.

Clerk of the course Chris Stickles spoke to the racing media on Friday and revealed that he considered it a 50/50 scenario for racing to go ahead on Saturday's card. He declared “There are conflicting forecasts for overnight but the one we have is for snow showers tonight and -1C overnight... Even with this forecast we would be very hopeful of racing so the 8am inspection is purely to be on the safe side in case it is colder than the forecast.”

The Ladbroke Hurdle will be attracting a significant sum of money on the day and it's listed for a bit later in the card.

Ascot is not the only racecourse deploying the frost covers ahead of Saturday with Newcastle also reporting some snow showers on Friday with freezing temperatures predicted for overnight. Should racing go ahead in either location it will likely force punters to reexamine their handicapping as the landing areas could be a bit different from conditions that many of these horses routinely train over.

Haydock Park is also up in the air about racing on Saturday but frost covers will not be deployed there according to Clerk of the Course Kirkland Tellwright.