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Racing News |
Wetherby Hope for Saturday Action
11/01/10
Officials at Wetherby will be hoping the weather relents this week in order that the racecourse can make a belated start to 2010 with a meeting on Saturday (January 16). The seven-race programme is set to begin at 12-45 p.m.
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The feature race is The Constant Security Graduation Chase, a £25,000 contest for stayers over three miles and one furlong - a race which could attract horses which were entered for the aborted coral.co.uk Rowland Meyrick Handicap Chase which would have been the principal race at Wetherby on Boxing Day.
Conditional jockeys and amateur riders take part in the opening race, The Wetherby 'Hands & Heels' Jumps Series Handicap Hurdle - the fifth of a series of 12 such races held throughout the UK during the current season over Jumps - designed to encourage riders not to resort to using the whip. A points system operates throughout this series which concludes at Newbury in March. Amateur riders Tom David and Sam Twiston-Davies lead the way after four races in the series.
Saturday's card also includes a qualifying race in this season's European Breeders' Fund Novices' Hurdle series, in which the first four horses in this contest over two and a half miles, will be eligible to compete in the £70,000 Final of this national series at Sandown Park in March.
Four-year-old fillies take part in the final contest, a Bumper race on the Flat for young horses about to begin their careers over Jumps. This race is held over the unusual, shorter, distance one mile and five furlongs.
The giant screen will be situated opposite the main stands, complemented by a display screen serving the parade ring area. Musical entertainment is provided by the LA Jazz Band.
