Saturday’s Clarence House Chase meeting at Ascot, featuring the highly-anticipated meeting of Edwardstone and Energumene, has been abandoned due to frozen ground.
Freezing temperatures this week have obliterated the jumps racing calendar with Ascot becoming the 10th fixture to fall foul of the weather since Monday.
The latest cancellation is a major blow for racing fans with the Grade One Clarence House prize at Ascot set to provide a huge clash of stars for the second year in a row.
However, Ascot had raised early concerns about the meeting, reporting the track frozen in places from Tuesday and deploying covers in key areas.
Despite those efforts, clerk of the course Chris Stickels had provided a pessimistic update on Thursday morning, stating that conditions needed ‘significant improvement’ to get the track raceable by the weekend.
An inspection was called at 4pm on Thursday and, despite temperatures rising to 5C, the track failed the inspection.
In a statement, Ascot said: “Given the continued sub-zero temperatures forecast at night through to Saturday, there is now therefore no chance it will be raceable by Saturday.
“Any potential rearrangement of individual races, including the Grade 1 Clarence House Chase, is a matter for the BHA.”
Whether the Clarence House Chase is rescheduled remains to be seen – but Patrick Mullins, assistant to his father Willie, confirmed the intention for Energumene to travel over if the race is switched to a different venue.
“If it is lost we hope it is rescheduled and the plan would still be to go over. It fits in well with his programme,” he told Sky Sports Racing.
“He’s in great form, he worked well at the Curragh on Tuesday, he worked well this morning and we’re fit and ready to rock.”
