Warwick's National Hunt meeting on Wednesday has had to be called off due to unsuitably fast ground.
Nessie Chanter, Clerk of the Course at Warwick Racecourse, said: “It is clearly disappointing to have to cancel racing on Wednesday, but our priority must be to provide safe and suitable ground for participants.
“The impact of racing on Tuesday this week was that we had two full days when we were unable to water the track - the raceday itself and the following day, when the track was being repaired.
"With the recent dry weather, combined with the prolonged hot and dry summer we have had, the ground has dried out more than we would like since Tuesday and we only have the watering capacity to maintain current conditions rather than to improve them.
"Having reviewed a challenging last fixture, consulted with the BHA, carefully considered feedback from participants, and looked ahead to an unusually dry and hot forecast for the end of September - we have taken the decision to cancel next week’s fixture at an early stage rather than risk providing ground that does not meet the standard we require.
“Our focus now turns to our next raceday on November 3 and to ensuring we provide the best possible conditions for the rest of the 26-27 season."
Chepstow forced to go all-hurdles
A further indication of the problems jump racing is facing this autumn in light of a continued lack of significant rain has come with the news that the three-day Chepstow Welsh Festival early next month will be an all-hurdle affair, with the track admitting defeat in its battle to get the chase course fit in time.
A change around means that Worcester on Monday October 12 and Ffos Las two days later will now stage all-chase cards, with the hurdle races programmed for those two days transferred to Chepstow, who hold onto the featured Persian War Novices' Hurdle on the Friday and the Welsh Champion Hurdle on the Sunday.
Tom Byrne, Head of Racing at the BHA, said: "We appreciate that these are significant changes to the race programme at this stage of the season. However, we hope that as a package they will allow the sport to deliver an appropriate jumping programme over the coming weeks.
“Our intention is to ensure that racing over both hurdles and fences takes place on the best ground available, and we are grateful to Ludlow and ARC for their support in enabling these interventions. We also hope they are welcomed in the circumstances by participants, and we thank them for their ongoing support.
"Further updates are likely to follow on a weekly basis from this point as we continue to work proactively with racecourses and participants to provide the best jumping ground possible amidst the ongoing challenges presented by the lack of rain across the country."
In a separate development, Ludlow has abandoned its first meeting of the new season on October 7 with Managing Director Simon Sherwood forced to pull the plug.
He said: "Given the current climate, we have spent the past few weeks hoping for significant rainfall. Unfortunately, we are now at a point where we cannot delay the decision any further. Additional watering would not have sufficiently addressed the conditions, and we have taken expert advice from agronomists throughout the process.
"This is not the decision we wanted to take for our first fixture of the season, but I am sure everyone will understand the challenges we face following such a prolonged period of dry weather."
Worcester will now stage an additional meeting on that day.
More from Sporting Life
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.
