Tnere was a belief within the sport that all-weather racing meant what is stated, that thoroughbreds will gallop here and there, despite what Mother Nature decides to throw our way, and all will be well.

THERE was a belief within the sport that all-weather racing meant what is stated, that thoroughbreds will gallop here and there, despite what Mother Nature decides to throw our way, and all will be well.

The odds layers make money, punters do not, some things do not change.

Then exceptions to the rule started to materialise, with fog and very strong winds causing cancellations. Well, it seems we can add snow to the list of reasons for cancellation, because the meeting scheduled at Wolverhampton yesterday was aborted after the track's people checked their place over in mid-morning.

The Polytrack surface had a rather thick coating of snow which started to fall during Sunday night, and clerk of the course Fergus Cameron thought it right and proper to call an early inspection. What he saw did not look good, and so the official decided to give the track an extra couple of hours to improve. It did not, and all was lost.

Of course, if all-weather courses can suffer, turf tracks are much worse off, and the prospects for a resumption of National Hunt racing in the next few days look bleak. Freezing conditions forced yesterday's two jumps meetings, at Ludlow and Taunton, to be called off and today's Leicester card has followed suit.

This afternoon's other grass fixture is at Sedgefield where officials are hopeful despite calling a precautionary inspection. Clerk of the course Charlie Moore reports the track to be raceable at present but a frost is forecast. "We have been above freezing since and had two millimetres of rain and sleet," he said. " We also have a light dusting of snow but that is not on the grass. We will have a look at 8am.

"We are forecast temperatures as low as -4 overnight but they have been wrong and we are keeping our fingers crossed."

Tomorrow's jumps programmes are under threat with inspections called at Musselburgh and Fontwell this morning. Musselburgh was not in a fit state to race yesterday and with two more nights of frost forecast, clerk of the course Anthea Morshead felt it prudent to take an early look. "We had a -5 last night and we are only zero right now so we are frozen at the moment," she said yesterday.

"The forecast is for -4 overnight, -3 on Tuesday night, with milder air set to come in on Wednesday. We just need to see whether that is going to come soon enough and we are going to look in the morning to see whether it is hopeless or not. We will just play it by ear."

Prospects at Fontwell are bleak at best and officials have called an 8am check today. "At the moment we are frozen and it's just been spitting with snow again," said clerk of the course Ed Arkell. "We were -4 during the night and are forecast anything from -5 to -7 and to stay basically cold tomorrow followed by another hard frost on Tuesday night.

"I'd have thought we'll make a decision tomorrow. There'd be no point prolonging it."

On a positive note, trainer Alan King reports Walkon to be in excellent form following his impressive recent win at Chepstow and all roads now lead to the Triumph Hurdle in March.

"He's in very good form and I would now like to take him for a juvenile race at Cheltenham on January 24," said King. "It's always good to get some experience into them round there when possible and I am delighted with the way the horse is progressing."

Walkon is a best-priced 9-1 for Triumph Hurdle glory at Cheltenham.