Storm Eunice: Ascot Chase day not expected to be affected as clerk of course Chris Stickels monitors potential damage | Racing News

Ascot remain confident that Saturday’s Ascot Chase meeting will be unaffected by Storm Eunice, but clerk of the course Chris Stickels is monitoring the track for potential damage from strong winds.

Three UK fixtures – Fakenham, Southwell and Lingfield – were abandoned on Friday with weather warnings in place across most of the UK.

The worst of the storm is expected to have passed over by Saturday and only light rain is forecast to fall at Ascot before racing.

Saturday’s seven-race card, all live on Sky Sports Racing, includes the Grade One Ascot Chase and the Grade Two Reynoldstown Novices’ Chase.

Speaking to Sky Sports Racing on Friday, Stickels said: “We’re expecting some more showers and the wind to pick up further but it should die down a little overnight. We are expecting some strong winds tomorrow but not as severe as today’s.

“We haven’t got any temporary structures up at the minute and we won’t until tomorrow. We’re delaying most of our setup until today has blown through and then we’ll see what it’s like tomorrow.

“The forecast for us tomorrow isn’t anywhere near as severe as today. If the forecast is correct then we don’t anticipate it will cause us any problems as long as nothing is damaged during the storms today.”

After an unsually dry start to February, Stickels reports ground conditions at Ascot – currently described as soft – to be in decent order.

“We were pretty dry in the early part of this month and had good ground last week,” Stickels said.

“We’ve had 24mm of rain since last Saturday and the track has taken that really well. We’re expecting another couple of millimetres in these gusty showers with another 6mm possible tomorrow during racing.

“It’s going to take that too and I don’t anticipate track conditions deteriorating much further than soft. It’s in a lovely condition really.

“The wind will make it testing and likely be blowing against them as they run up the straight, so that’ll make it tiring, but I don’t think underfoot conditions will be that testing.”

Haydock’s Grand National Trial meeting on Saturday is subject to a precautionary inspection at 8am on Saturday morning, although the track is currently fit to race.