Major ITV horse racing meets cancelled with immediate effect | Racing | Sport

Haydock Park issued an apology after being forced to abandon two race meetings on Friday and Saturday this week. Last Saturday, the major ITV card, which included two crucial Royal Ascot sprint trials, experienced considerable disruption after a hole appeared on the outer stretch of its two Flat tracks.

Racing was postponed for 90 minutes while inspections were conducted and officials determined whether racing could proceed after the John and Thady Gosden-trained Friendly Soul was pulled up following a fall during the opening race. Further investigation revealed an elbow-deep hole in the surface near the 2f pole.

Consequently, stewards called off three races on the round course and allowed the sprint races to be moved to the inner track, which had been utilised for racing on two preceding days.

Haydock encountered a swift turnaround with two additional meetings planned for Friday and Saturday, due to be shown on ITV1, but with the outer track unavailable, an inspection on Tuesday was required to determine if the inner course would again be fit for purpose. A total of 249 entrants were scheduled across the two days.

Haydock posted: “Fixtures scheduled to take place on Friday 29th and Saturday 30th May have been cancelled following today’s inspection of the inner course.

“We have hoped to stage this weekend’s fixtures on the inner track after a hole appeared on the outer track during racing last Saturday.

“However, given the three days of racing already staged on the inner track in recent days, the ground will not have the chance to recover to an acceptable standard for racing this weekend.

“We are working with the BHA around next steps for the rescheduling of Friday and Saturday’s races and the BHA will issue further updates on this in due course.

“We are sorry for the inconvenience that this will cause to participants and racegoers.

“External drainage specialists and agronomists are on site at Haydock park today and investigations continue into the cause of the hole that appeared on the outer track during racing on Saturday 23rd May.”