Racing: Rain soaks Chepstow but officials remain confident

Officials at Wetherby are to inspect the track at 7.30am today after pre-Christmas rain left the course waterlogged in places.

A spokesman for the Yorkshire course, where racing is scheduled for today, said : "Given decent weather until Boxing Day we should be OK, but parts of the course are currently waterlogged."

Tim Betteridge, the chief executive at Wetherby, added: "We had 25 millimetres of rain over the weekend and we are hoping for more wind than rain now."

Huntingdon became the first Boxing Day casualty after flooding forced the abandonment of today's fixture. The flooding, combined with further forecast rain, prompted track officials to call it off on Monday.

There was better news though from the other eight tracks around the country with no problems expected.

The going at Kempton was described yesterday as Good to Soft, Good in places by the clerk of the course, Brian Clifford. There was little prospect of any change according to Clifford, who added: "The forecast is better than the one given 24 hours ago and we should have no problems."

Officials at Chepstow were confident on Christmas Eve that tomorrow's Welsh National fixture will go ahead despite recent heavy rain. The going at the track is currently described as Heavy, but the clerk of the course, David McAllister, was not expecting any difficulties for the card. He said: "We seem to be all right now and I think the worst is over."