Haydock officials confident Saturday card will take place

Haydock officials are confident that racing will go ahead as planned on Saturday after Friday evening’s meeting was abandoned after just two races because of unsafe ground.

Jockeys Cieren Fallon, William Buick and PJ McDonald were among a group who inspected the track after raising concerns about the home bend, which had become slippery.

The official going had been described as good ahead of the six-race card, with officials having placed 8mm of water on the course on Tuesday, before rain fell on Wednesday and Thursday.

Despite the abandonment, Haydock’s clerk of the course, Kirkland Tellwright, is positive that Saturday’s meeting, which includes a pair of Betfred-sponsored Group Three contests – the Pinnacle Stakes and John Of Gaunt Stakes – will go ahead as planned.

He said: “We are confident about tomorrow. We have as much time as we need to prepare the track for tomorrow. We are confident we will get things done by then.

“Professional jockeys rode in the second race and expressed concern that they didn’t feel secure on the bend.

“We carried out an inspection and a stewards’ inquiry, and the jockeys were of the view that they were not happy to ride on it.

“Of course there is regret that this situation has arisen. It is most unfortunate and clearly we would not have asked them to ride had we felt beforehand it was unsafe.

“I don’t know what the issue was exactly, but there it is, However, we have got time to take measures to ensure it does not happen tomorrow.”

Those who attended on Friday will be compensated in full.