Watching brief

The course is currently raceable, but snow is forecast on Thursday evening with temperatures due to dip on Friday night.

With the likes of Gold Cup winner Long Run, Arkle favourite Sprinter Sacre and Triumph hero Zarkandar all due to run, officials are desperate for the fixture to take place.

"The only recent change in the forecast to that of which we've been seeing all week is that we are supposed to get some snow this evening," said clerk of the course Richard Osgood.

"I'm not sure how much we'll get. It won't be too cold, though, zero or 1C.

"It could be fairly cold on Friday night, that is a possibility, we'll just have to see."

Musselburgh Switch

Musselburgh will host a re-staged Trials Day meeting on Saturday after last Sunday's card was frozen off.

Managing director Bill Farnsworth said on Wednesday: "We had a minus 2C frost last night, which was a bit colder than we had anticipated, but that should be the end of the frost for us.

"Temperatures could be 3C during the night tonight and then 6C or 7C during the day on Thursday.

"We're forecast some light persistent rain, which shouldn't amount to too much.

"Basically we're forecast three and a half days of temperatures not getting down to zero, so if that is correct, we'll be racing.

"We've put a bit more money into the Scottish County Hurdle, the Scottish Triumph Hurdle and the novice chase, so we have total prize-money of £81,000 now."

The picture elsewhere for National Hunt fare is less positive, however. No jumps action has taken place since Ayr beat the elements on Monday and there is unlikely to be much change on that score before the weekend.

The all-weather fixture at Wolverhampton will be the sole British meeting on Thursday after both Huntingdon and Taunton failed inspections, with Doncaster having already been abandoned.

Huntingdon clerk of the course Sulekha Varma said: "It had dropped to minus 7C by about 10.30 on Tuesday night.

"The track is still 40% covered in snow and the majority of it is frozen so there's no prospect of sufficient improvement."

Not even the use of frost covers could save Taunton.

Their clerk of the course Michael Trickey said: "When I came in just after 7am, I poked under the sheets and I thought it was all right.

"But with a bit more daylight, you can see that the bits of course which were worn have just caught the frost."

Friday's jumps meeting at Kempton has been abandoned with the venue now staging a bumper card on the all-weather track instead.

Clerk of the course Barney Clifford had planned to inspect at 8am but after temperatures dropped below freezing again overnight, he was able to make an earlier call.

Friday's meeting at Bangor has been abandoned due to a frozen track.

Clerk of the course Andrew Morris inspected the track at 8am and was forced to call off the meeting after another cold night.

Saturday's cards at Uttoxeter and Warwick are already in serious doubt, with inspections called for 1.30pm and 2pm respectively on Thursday.

Additional fixtures have been announced by the British Horseracing Authority for Kempton on the all-weather on Saturday afternoon, and a 'jumpers' bumper' card at Southwell on Sunday.

Plumpton's meeting on Monday is subject to an 8am inspection on Sunday due to frost.

Part of the course is still frozen in places and clerk of the course Mark Cornford has called an early check to make everyone aware of the situation.

He also believes they will have a better idea of the forecast on Sunday morning.