This afternoon’s meeting at Doncaster will go ahead as planned but the card at Leicester must pass a second inspection at 10.30am.

Shortly after 7am Doncaster’s clerk of the course Paul Barker was confident temperatures had not dropped sufficiently to cause a problem but it was a different story for Jimmy Stevenson at Leicester.

By 8am the temperature on course had dropped to a chilly -4C but it is forecast to rise to 4C or 5C later on. Whether it rises in time remains to be seen.

There are also issues at Wincanton on Friday where clerk of the course Dan Cooper and his team have called an 8.30am check for raceday.

The course is currently frozen in places with temperatures potentially going as low as -3C before racing.