Friday jumps cards all off as Newbury remain optimistic for Saturday

Newbury officials will keep their eyes to the skies for the next 48 hours, but hopes remained high on Thursday that Saturday's important Betfair Super Saturday fixture can get the go-ahead. "The forecasts have been about right so far and we're still optimistic, but we need the snow to stay away," said a spokeswoman for the racecourse. Some snow is also forecast for Kempton, but no problems are anticipated for the seven-race programme of National Hunt Flat races which will take place on Friday after the scheduled jumps card was abandoned early on Thursday morning. "We went down to minus 1.5C overnight and while it was not as cold as forecast, we are frozen in places [on the turf course]," said the clerk of the course Brian Clifford. "The forecast offers little hope so we have activated the 'bumpers for jumpers' card. There is the threat of snow tonight, we're on the edge of that. We could possibly get one or two centimetres but it should be easy enough to move." The card features a number of useful jumps performers, including a tranche of runners from Nicky Henderson, most notably Oscar Whisky who warms up for the Ladbrokes World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. Friday's jumps meeting at Bangor was abandoned on Thursday morning, but there are still three cards set to take place in Britain with Flat meetings at Southwell and Wolverhampton running alongside the new card at Kempton. Saturday's jumps fixtures at Warwick and Uttoxeter were called off on Thursday. Uttoxeter's clerk of the course, Charlie Moore, inspected the track at 1.30pm and opted to call off the meeting with little chance of the course being raceable. He said: "There's still snow on the ground and significant frost which has been there since January 31. Whatever sleet, snow or rain might come in the next 12 hours, there will be an insufficient rise in temperatures to get the level of frost out of the ground in time for the course to be safe to race. "Added to that we will probably get a minus 4C or minus 5C frost tomorrow night so any thaw that did happen would be scuppered." Warwick later became the latest victim of the cold snap when their fixture was claimed by frost and snow. Clerk of the course Sulekha Varma was due to inspect at 2.30pm on Thursday but made an earlier call as little improvement in conditions is expected. She said: "We just had a walk round the track and there's no improvement. We have barely got above freezing today and there is still a fair part of the course covered in snow and the majority is frozen. "It is forecast to drop to minus 5C tonight so even if temperatures do rise, there would be insufficient time for the track to thaw."