Tracks at Lingfield, Haydock Park, Beverley and Chester were all affected, leading to cards being reduced and refund problems
For the fourth time in less than a week, a posse of riders and officials were forced to inspect a track mid-meeting on Monday after jockeys reported slipping on Lingfield’s home turn in the first contest on what was scheduled to be a seven-race card. Unlike similar inspections at Haydock Park, Beverley and Chester in recent days, the meeting was not abandoned entirely, but racing continued only on the straight course with the card reduced to just five events.
At all four tracks, concerns were raised that horses were slipping on the bends. Haydock’s card on Friday evening was abandoned after two races, while Chester staged four races on Saturday afternoon before the meeting was called off. The course then caused controversy by announcing that it would not offer refunds to racegoers as it had staged the day’s feature race, a Class 2 handicap, although it said via Twitter on Monday that it is now “assessing how we can acknowledge the disappointment felt by customers, owners, trainers and bookmakers”.
