AFTER a hard frost overnight Carlisle Races' meeting scheduled for today (Wednesday) has been called off following an inspection.

Carlisle Racecourse Managing Director John Baker said:

"The race meeting is lost completely I'm afraid, it is not rescheduled. We had minus-5 temperatures on Monday night and we were not raceable at all during the day on Tuesday.

"Then last night we had minus-6 and with temperatures forecast to not rise above two or three degrees during the day and the track absolutely frozen we had no chance of racing."

It meant the loss of an interesting racecard featuring 74 declared runners, including a competitive novice chase featuring Echo Point from Nicky Richards' stable as well as Regal Heights and Akilak - all potential good horses.

Richards was set to be represented in five of the seven races - again showing his support of his local track - and had good chances of notching a few winners.