Uttoxeter meeting given green light after fourth inspection

This afternoon's meeting at Uttoxeter will go ahead following an eventful morning at the Staffordshire circuit. Although the entire course has been covered by fleece since Wednesday, the prospect of freezing temperatures overnight on Friday prompted officials to announce a precautionary check for 7.30am. Clerk of the course Charlie Moore was happy to give the meeting the green light following that inspection, but shortly afterwards, the snow began to fall, threatening the fixture once more.With a heavy snow shower making the fleece "too wet and heavy to move easily", a second inspection was called for 10am.That inspection proved inconclusive, as did a third check at 11am, but with the fleece was eventually removed,trainers and jockeys inspected the track for a fourth time at midday and racing was belatedly given the go-ahead. Moore said: "I've been clerking for 27 years and you learn something new every day. Before I went to bed last night I said to my wife ' the one thing we don't want is snow'. Unfortunately, that's what we got. "The track was raceable under the fleece this morning, but then the snow came and it was very wet snow, which made the fleece difficult to move.Thankfully, after a lot of hard work, we've got there. "Brian Hughes, James Davies and Andrew Tinkler have been out with a couple of trainers and a couple of stewards and everyone is happy for racing to go ahead. "We do have patches of snow on some areas of the track, which we're in the process of breaking up." The first race is due to get under way at 1.10pm.