Cheltenham’s New Year’s Day meeting is beaten by the weather

CHELTENHAM’S New Year’s Day meeting was abandoned because of waterlogging.

An inspection was due to take place at the course at 8.30am on Wednesday - but shortly beforehand, a tweet from Cheltenham’s official account reported that the scheduled card will not take place.

It read: “New Year’s Day Racing abandoned.

“Following 85mm of rainfall since last Wednesday, there are areas of waterlogged ground across the width of the course, and it is therefore not raceable.”

The seven-race card was due to feature the Grade Two Dornan Engineering Relkeel Hurdle.

Chepstow’s Coral Welsh Grand National meeting on December 27 was also abandoned due to a waterlogged track.

The fixture has had no luck down the years on the weather front and once more course officials were forced to admit defeat.

There had been optimism that the prestigious card, which also features the Grade One Coral Finale Juvenile Hurdle, would survive but a further downfall left the course with patches of false ground.

Clerk of the course Libby O’flaherty said: “We’ve had another 27mm overnight and this morning, up to 7am when I was walking the track,” said O’flaherty.

“It’s so annoying as there’s just one area of false ground down the back straight and I was trying to find a way around it but there just isn’t one.”

O’flaherty confirmed that the meeting would now be run on January 9: “We’ve rescheduled for January 9. but we are waiting for confirmation that the card will be the same,” she said.