Four months ago, Mel Rowley’s dreams were being washed away by the chaos caused by Storm Babet, but now the Shropshire handler is eyeing Pertemps Final glory with Kyntara at Cheltenham.

Rowley is not a stranger to Festival success at Prestbury Park, as her husband Philip saddled Hazel Hill to win the St James’s Place Foxhunter Challenge Cup in 2019.

But Kyntara – who is as short as 12-1 with Sky Bet for Thursday’s three-mile handicap hurdle – represents the best chance of striking in her own name since becoming a professional licence holder at the family’s Poplar Cottage Farm.

Kyntara could be joined in the Cotswolds by recent Doncaster scorer Raffle Ticket, who holds an entry in the Trustatrader Plate, but soft ground would see hopes fully resting on the stable’s consistent hurdler, who began the season by winning at Lingfield and Aintree and has hit the crossbar in a couple of competitive events since.

“We’ve confirmed both of them but sadly, if the ground is right for one, it won’t be right for the other. But we’re very happy with them and we’ll just have to see how the week unfolds,” said Rowley.

“Kyntara is a definite to get in, so he would be favourite in regards to making the journey, but things could change dependent on ground.

“The softer the ground, the better for him and we’ve been absolutely delighted with him this season. He definitely has earned his place there and it would just be lovely to see him come up that hill.”

One of the many strings to the Rowley family’s bow is their renowned pre-training operation, with Sprinter Sacre perhaps the most famous alumni.

Kyntara himself was a Poplar Cottage graduate before joining Kim Bailey at the beginning of his rules career and his move back to Bridgnorth represents the Lady Dulverton-owned eight-year-old returning home ahead of arguably his biggest assignment to date.

“Who knows what will happen, it’s fairytale stuff and we’ve had horses for the owners for years,” continued Rowley.

“In fact, we had Kyntara when he was a three-year-old, then he went off elsewhere and now he’s gone full circle and come back to us.

“It would just be the most fantastic thing (if he could win) and we can all but dream. He’s come such a long way since we’ve had him back anyway, that for him to be going to Cheltenham is just fantastic on every level.”

She went on: “We’re a small team who work very hard and they are special days when you have a runner at Cheltenham.

“When you have a runner going, who one would hope would be competitive, it is just fantastic and very exciting. As we all know, anything can happen between now and then, but if all goes well, we will be loading up the lorry next Thursday.”

It was back in October when Rowley saw her yard washed away as Storm Babet wreaked havoc across the country.

Poplar Cottage felt the full force of the flooding caused by water coming into the yard meeting with a nearby stream, with the result being that parts of the gallop and schooling grounds ended up under water.

A timely repair job by a local company helped the Rowley team remain up and running and after surviving the worst weather the husband and wife duo have experienced in over 20 years at Poplar Cottage, they are taking plenty of positives from a trying winter.

Rowley said: “They always say something good comes out of bad and it was an unmitigated nightmare – it was just carnage, I’m not going to lie.

“We got in touch with a local chap whose business is groundworks and he came along with a little army of very, very helpful people and between them they put us back together again and got us back up and running.

“On the back of all that, he liked what he saw and the whole ethos of the yard and the team. We were short of a sponsor and he has now sponsored us.

“So, out of bad a good thing has happened and we’re proud to be able to say the chap who got us back on the road is now sponsoring us.”

Storm Babet continues to affect racing in Britain and Ireland, with this afternoon’s meeting at Yarmouth and tomorrow’s card at the Curragh the latest casualties.

There are also now inspections planned at Fontwell ahead of tomorrow’s fixture and at Clonmel for Thursday.

Yarmouth were forced to abandon their seven-race Flat card after an early-morning inspection, as “considerable rainfall overnight” left the track waterlogged.

Officials at the Curragh have cancelled Wednesday’s meeting following 21mm of rain last night, with the course currently unfit for racing and facing an unfavourable weather forecast.

Clerk of the course Brendan Sheridan said: “The forecast is for a further 5mm of rain today with the possibility of more rain moving in tomorrow, so there was no prospect of the situation improving here prior to racing.

“We’ve had a total of 77mm in the last week and the ground has been heavy since entries closed last Thursday.”

Fontwell have called a precautionary inspection for tomorrow morning at 7.30am.

The going is currently described as soft, good to soft in places, but “further significant rain” is expected this evening and early on Wednesday.

At Clonmel, the ground is heavy but currently fit for action ahead of racing on Thursday.

However, clerk of the course Lorcan Wyer reported: “Having spoken with Met Eireann, there is the possibility of a further 5-10mm of rain and some spot flooding tomorrow afternoon which will be on top of the 54mm of rain the track has had in the last week.

“With that additional rain forecast for tomorrow, we felt it was prudent to let people know as early as possible that we will need to have a precautionary inspection at 7.30am on Thursday morning.”

Last Saturday’s scheduled meetings at Stratford and Market Rasen were lost to the weather, along with Wednesday’s Worcester card and four upcoming fixtures at Southwell.

Hayley Turner made it safely to Ascot for Qipco British Champions Day after requiring a dramatic rescue from her flooded car on Friday.

The record-breaking rider is currently hunting down her 1,000th career victory and was hoping to arrive in Berkshire on 999 winners with a fancied ride on Docklands in the closing Balmoral Handicap.

Turner was expecting to ride Run Zarak Run at Redcar on Friday – but never made it to the north-east track after having to place an emergency call when her car was swamped in the midst of Storm Babet.

While Turner emerged unscathed, Run Zarak Run duly romped home under replacement PJ McDonald to add to her woes.

She told ITV Racing: “My dream was nearly in place, but I had a bit of an incident yesterday. Basically my car is floating down the Great North Road somewhere on my way to Redcar.

“I had to call 999 and get the fireman to come and rescue me – I actually got a fireman’s lift out of my car window!

“The horse then won about 15 lengths so a very frustrating day. I’m car-less and win-less as well.”

Storm Babet disrupted football in England and Scotland on Saturday as adverse weather conditions swept the UK.

Ross County’s home match against St Mirren in the cinch Premiership was the latest fixture to be postponed north of the border.

And in England, Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold was involved in an accident after a 40ft electricity pylon smashed onto a car in front of the England international, according to The Sun.

The high voltage power line was pulled up by 70mph winds and landed in front of Alexander-Arnold’s black Range Rover near Knutsford, Cheshire, the newspaper reported.

Alexander-Arnold reportedly slammed on the brakes before colliding with a BMW X5. Cheshire police said nobody was injured in the incident.

The footballer’s agent was contacted by the PA news agency, but declined to comment on the story.

The storm showed no signs of abating as downpours continued to batter the UK on Saturday, with three people dead and another red “danger to life” warning in place.

After conversations with the SPFL and Police Scotland, the decision was taken to call the St Mirren game off on Saturday morning with supporters’ safety in mind.

A club statement said a new date and kick-off time would be rearranged in due course.

County’s match at the Global Energy Stadium became the first fixture to be called off on Saturday but several others were already postponed on Friday, including Aberdeen’s home game against Dundee and Motherwell’s trip to St Johnstone.

Other Saturday fixtures to have fallen include Mansfield’s home clash with Forest Green in Sky Bet League Two, and Altrincham’s match against Dorking in the Vanarama National League.

Chesterfield’s home fixture against Gateshead has also been called off “on the recommendation of various external partner agencies”.

The Scottish Championship game between Arbroath and Raith Rovers – in the worst-hit area of Angus – was called off, as was Greenock’s match against Inverness.

Cove Rangers against Montrose in League One was also postponed along with two games in League Two – Elgin versus Forfar and Stenhousemuir against Peterhead.

Saturday’s race card at Market Rasen was also postponed due to standing water on areas of the track.

An inspection was held on Friday but the race course confirmed after 50mm of rainfall in the area that the decision was made to abandon the meeting.

Rotherham’s Championship game with Ipswich, scheduled to be played on Friday night, was also postponed due to the stormy conditions.

The area was hit with torrential rain which caused the River Don, which runs behind the AESSEAL New York Stadium, to burst its banks which left areas around the stadium flooded.

Ross County’s home match against St Mirren in the cinch Premiership is the latest fixture to be postponed due to the adverse weather conditions caused by Storm Babet.

The storm shows no signs of abating as downpours continued to batter the UK on Saturday, with three people dead and another red “danger to life” warning in place.

After conversations with the SPFL and Police Scotland, the decision was taken to call the St Mirren game off on Saturday morning with supporters’ safety in mind.

A club statement said a new date and kick-off time will be rearranged in due course.

County’s match at the Global Energy Stadium became the first fixture to be called off on Saturday but several others were already postponed on Friday, including Aberdeen’s home game against Dundee and Motherwell’s trip to St Johnstone.

Other Saturday fixtures to have fallen include Mansfield’s home clash with Forest Green in Sky Bet League Two, and Altrincham’s match against Dorking in the Vanarama National League.

The Scottish Championship game between Arbroath and Raith Rovers, in the worst-hit area of Angus, has been called off as has Greenock’s match against Inverness.

Cove Rangers against Montrose in League One has also been postponed along with two games in League Two – Elgin versus Forfar and Stenhousemuir against Peterhead.

Rotherham’s Championship game with Ipswich, scheduled to be played on Friday night, was also postponed due to the conditions.

The area was hit with torrential rain which caused the River Don, which runs behind the AESSEAL New York Stadium, to burst its banks which left areas around the stadium flooded.

Friday’s jumps fixtures at Fakenham and Uttoxeter have been called off as Storm Babet continues to bring heavy rain and strong winds across the country.

Both tracks had called inspections for 7.30am but neither venue will race due to the weather conditions.

Uttoxeter had 12 mm of rain overnight, with clerk of the course Richard Fothergill anticipating a further 20 mm at least over the day.

He said: “We had the 12mm overnight but in the hour after I walked the course at 7am, we had a further 5mm. The forecasts are for upwards of 20mm, with some even saying 40mm.

“We were raceable yesterday, but we didn’t have much scope for more.”

Fakenham clerk of the course David Hunter felt a combination of factors had gone against the Norfolk venue.

He said: “We had 17mm by 6.15/30 this morning which was fine, but the problem is what is to come with our forecaster saying we could get 30-40mm, with the worst rain moving in around lunchtime.

“We have a drainage ditch that runs through the course from surrounding farmland with a pond that can overflow onto the track, we also couldn’t guarantee safety vehicles would be able to access all areas of the track and obviously horse and rider safety is paramount.

“Given the weather is not ideal for travelling either, we felt it best to make an early decision.”

Redcar’s Flat meeting has been given the go-ahead after passing a morning inspection, although officials at the track will continue to monitor the forecast strong winds – a proviso that also applies to Newcastle’s evening meeting on the all-weather.