Inspection at Fairyhouse ahead of Winter Festival

There will be an inspection at Fairyhouse tomorrow morning with very low temperatures expected overnight.

The Winter Festival begins on Saturday but officials fear a frozen track.

A statement from the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board said: "Due to the forecast of low temperatures overnight, there will be an inspection at 7.30am tomorrow morning at Fairyhouse ahead of the fixture scheduled to take place. The track is currently fit for racing and the ground is soft."

Brendan Sheridan, IHRB clerk of the course at Fairyhouse said: "We had a slight grass frost at Fairyhouse this morning following a cold night, but the track is currently fit for racing.

"Having spoken with Met Éireann this morning, the forecast for tonight is for temperatures to get down to minus three and not much higher than two degrees tomorrow. In light of that forecast, we will have an inspection at 7.30am on Saturday morning to assess the situation for day one of our Winter Festival."

Officials at Newcastle have not given up hope that Saturday's high-profile fixture will beat the cold snap, after calling a precautionary inspection for 2.30pm on Friday afternoon.

Gosforth Park is due the biggest meeting of its jumps season this weekend, with Constitution Hill set to be the star of the show in his bid for back-to-back victories in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle.

And having deployed frost sheets across the entire track on Tuesday, the course underneath the covers was reported to be raceable on Friday morning by clerk of the course Eloise Quayle.

However, snowfall in the north east is the initial concern, and officials are keen to see what happens in the coming hours.

Even if the course is deemed raceable on Friday afternoon, a forecast for further freezing temperatures