Welsh Grand National

The 2020 Coral Welsh Grand National fell victim to Storm Bella this afternoon and was cancelled for the fifth time in ten years. Chepstow Racecourse officials had little choice but to cancel the flagship race meeting after the track became waterlogged following extremely heavy rain, however the meeting has been rescheduled for Saturday, January 9th with all seven races on the card being carried over to that date.

Despite the massive amount of rain falling over the past week in South Wales, a reported 90% of the course is fine with only a small amount completely waterlogged.

There was optimism earlier in the week that the prestigious card would go ahead, however Storm Bella had other ideas and dumped 27mm of rain on the venue overnight, bringing the weekly total of rainfall to a massive 127mm. An inspection by clerk of the course Libby O’Flaherty at 7.45 am confirmed the inevitable and racing fans will now have to wait until January 9th for the rescheduled meeting to take place.

O’Flaherty said: “We’ve had another 27mm overnight and this morning, up to 7am when I was walking the track.

“It’s so annoying as there’s just one area of false ground down the back straight and I was trying to find a way around it but there just isn’t one.”

“We hope to reschedule the meeting for January 9 and hopefully the weather will be kinder to us then.”

The rescheduled meeting will remain a seven-race card and all entries for the 2020 Coral Welsh Grand National will revert to all the runners entered at the ‘Weights Published’ stage.

For all the latest runners, riders and best odds on the 2020 Welsh Grand National, visit our Grand National Runners & Riders page.