weather update & change of plans

the weather appears to be improving slightly now in Britain and Ireland, but too late to help York and Tralee, both of which have had to abandon their fixtures for Thursday and Friday. Inspections are still due to be held at Hamilton and Newcastle in respect of their Friday fixtures, and Tralee´s Saturday meeting is also far from certain. However Tralee- which closes down after this meeting- has now been granted 3 extra days next week, on Monday and Tuesday (repeating this week´s abandoned Tuesday and Wednesday cards) and Wednesday (with races from the Thursday and Friday cards). Of much more importance are the plans to save the principal races from York´s Ebor meeting, which have been rescheduled as follows: the 3 Group One races will now all be run at this weekend´s Newmarket meeting, the Yorkshire Oaks and Nunthorpe, as well as the DBS Sales Race, on Friday (which now has a mammoth card of 11 races), and the International on Saturday. The Ebor Handicap (with a new name) an d the Gimcrack will be run at Newbury on Friday and the Great Voltigeur at Goodwood on Saturday. The original fields and entries still stand, though it is not yet clear if the two Irish favourites for the International, Duke of Marmalade and New Approach, will travel over. However this initiative, and the quick thinking and organisational work involved, must be highly commended.