Chepstow’s Welsh Racing Festival, the traditional jumps season opener, will be run without chase races as the track continues to feel the effect of an extreme summer drought.
The three-day meeting staged between October 9-11, all live on Sky Sports Racing, is at the centre of a major fixture reshuffle in response to a prolonged dry period which has left the ground unseasonably dry and hard.
A total of 19 hurdle races and two national hunt flat races will be run across the meeting, with Hereford also reduced to an all-hurdle card on October 13.
Chepstow’s high-class chase races will instead move to Ffos Las on October 14 as part of an all-chase card, while Worcester also now hosts an all-chase meeting on October 12.
Ben Cook, ARC Racing Director, said: “We are obviously disappointed to have to make these changes to the DragonBet Welsh Racing Festival at Chepstow, but we wanted to make and announce the decision as early as possible.
“The racecourse team have been working incredibly hard over the course of the summer, and into the autumn, to get both of Chepstow’s jumps tracks ready for this meeting. We have simply been beaten by the weather, as far as the chase course is concerned.
“Chepstow received 63mm of rain in late August, which made a significant positive impact on the track, alongside the irrigation that the team have been undertaking.
“The track has received only 43mm of rain in September however, with none in the last ten days. This has stalled that progress and meant that the chase course will simply not have sufficient ease in the ground.”
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