Racing: Sand hit by snow

SOUTHWELL yesterday became the first all-weather meeting to be abandoned this season when a blizzard left no option but to call the meeting off. 'With driving horizontal snow, it would have been unfair to ask horses and jockeys to jump hurdles,' the clerk of the course said. 'The track was perfectly raceable.'

Warwick was also lost yesterday and today's programme at Catterick is the 61st to be wiped out this season. Prospects for tomorrow's cards at Towcester and Haydock are poor with snow on both courses.