Sandown and Aintree meetings threatened by Storm Darragh

Sandown’s Tingle Creek Chase meeting and Aintree's Becher Chase fixture will undergo precautionary inspections on Saturday morning with wind of up to 50mph forecast during racing.

“We’re expecting it to remain dry during racing on Friday before rain gets to us in the early evening. That will clear overnight, but that will bring increased winds,” said Clerk of the course at Sandown Andrew Cooper.

“There are some suggestions the winds will be at their strongest at around midday time – and gusts of up to 50mph plus, possibly from first thing but certainly from mid-morning.

“A few of us have been kicking this situation around for 48 hours and the common consent seems to be that 50mph seems to be the tipping point, and arguably 45mph.

“You’ve got to take into account all aspects of putting on a day of racing, not just from an equine and rider point of view but for the public as well. All racecourses tomorrow are in that ball park.

“Because of that we’ll have a precautionary inspection at 7.30am and take it from there.”

Aintree will also be having a precautionary inspection early on Saturday morning.

Aintree’s clerk Dan Cooper said: “We’ve got an amber warning in place for high winds.

“The difficulty is there is a slight lull at the time we’ll be doing the course walk in the morning, it’s looking relatively manageable (then) so the difficulty is do you begin predicting what is to come?

“The rain, going-wise, is OK, but the wind is the big threat and if we get to what is forecast (50-60mph guts) then there certainly will be some safety elements to consider. It’s a tricky forecast for us all.

“The mean average looks like we can manage, but the gusts are tricky, and there’s no forecast as to how often the gusts are, you don’t know they are coming until they are on top of you”

Chepstow will hold a precautionary inspection at 7.30am, while Wetherby will inspect at 3pm on Friday due to standing water in the back straight.