THE current cold conditions are putting several of the Boxing Day meetings under threat with four of the six National Hunt cards subject to inspections today.

Racing at Towcester was the first casualty of the weekend after it was called off yesterday. But with temperatures expected to rise across most of the country over the next few days onwards, officials are hopeful that meetings will go ahead – although several tracks are still covered in snow.

Sedgefield is one and they will inspect at 11am this morning. Clerk of the course Charlie Moore said: “The snow is moving a little bit, but not much, and it is forecast to get warmer, but not a lot.

“Tomorrow could be warmer than today and there is a chance of a band of rain moving in which would help us a bit. If the rain did arrive there is no chance of us waterlogging as the track hasn’t seen any rain for a week so we could cope with that. The ground would be heavy, but we’d cope.”

It is a similar situation at Wetherby, who must pass a 2pm inspection.

Clerk of the course Jonjo Sanderson said: “Over the past 12 hours I would say we have had around a 1% improvement.

“It’s a nice, sunny day today but there isn’t enough heat in it to be moving the snow and we are still totally unraceable.

“If we’re the same as we are today then I think we’re going to struggle, but if there is some improvement, we can decide if we’re going to inspect again on Saturday morning.”

Market Rasen also check at 2pm. There is four inches of snow on the track, but clerk of the course Nick Patton is not optimistic.

Huntingdon inspect at 3pm, but there are no problems anticipated ahead of the King George meeting at Kempton, with the frost covers deployed working.

Officials at Wincanton are also optimistic and clerk of the course Barry Johnson has no plans to stage an inspection.

There are no problems expected at the all-weather fixture at Wolverhampton.