Iconic racecourse turns into the ‘St Moritz of Yorkshire’ after massive snow storm

3 months ago 26

THIS iconic racecourse turned into the ‘St Moritz of Yorkshire’ after a massive snow storm transformed it into a winter wonderland.

Jockeys had packed up and started leaving Doncaster before the meeting had even been abandoned on Thursday.

The snow storm meant Doncaster was totally unraceable[/caption]

There was hardly a soul to be seen before the meeting was abandoned[/caption]

Jockey Jonjo O’Neill looked on helplessly as the snow continued to fall[/caption]

Donnie off. Hardly surprising pic.twitter.com/My8jsYQN9D

— Leonna Mayor (@LeonnaMayor) February 8, 2024

Officials had no choice but to pull the plug soon after once it became clear it was too dangerous to race.

It meant the entire seven-race fixture was scrapped with groundstaff helpless to do anything amid the yellow weather warning.

Footage from TV and photos from the track showed the extent of the snowfall.

Hurdles and fences were covered in a heavy dusting while the usually vibrant betting ring was completely empty bar one or two hardy souls.

Sky Sports Racing host Luke Harvey said the track was perfectly raceable when he arrived but that the venue had changed unrecognisably in the face of a 45-minute snow storm.

Clerk of the course Paul Barker said: “This morning I walked the track and it was nice, we’d had no rain and it had been dry overnight.

“I walked it again at 10.30am with the stewards’ panel chair and we just started to get a bit of sleet and the snow started to settle a little bit, but nothing that would ever concern us.

“Jockeys were arriving and going out saying, ‘this is all fine’.

“About three-quarters-of-an-hour before the first, we just had a really heavy downpour of a snow and it never really stopped.

“While we were doing the enquiry, I spoke to the weather station for an update and they were saying you’ve probably got another 45 minutes of this snow, the temperatures aren’t going to increase so even if it stopped snowing, it wouldn’t thaw or go anywhere.

“You can’t just beat mother nature. Three-quarters-of-an-hour before the first, we were perfectly fit and ready to go.”

One punter said Doncaster – where King Charles made a historic first visit last September for the St Leger race – looked like the ‘St Moritz of Yorkshire’.

The decision to abandon came after a shambolic admin error meant one race at Newcastle, scheduled for tonight, had to be postponed.

BHA bosses were forced to apologise after realising the 5.05pm Class 6 contest would take place in the dark.

Newcastle has floodlights but only on the straight track meaning the start of the 1m2f race – set for eight minutes after sunset – would not have been covered.

A whopping seven weather alerts have been issued for much of the UK today in a bitter cold snap – with up to 25cm of snow falling in parts.

The latest bad weather spell comes just weeks after severe flooding wrecked racecourses up and down the country.

Huntingdon racecourse became a total write-off after it was flooded with dirty water during Storm Henk.

While Worcester racecourse had people paddling down the home straight in their kayaks.