British Champions Day: Will the meeting go ahead? Odds say Storm Babet won't stop racing

• Rain set to hit Ascot ahead of Saturday

• Meeting in jeopardy

• Will the racing go ahead at Ascot?

Will British Champions Day take place?

British Champions Day takes place at Ascot on Saturday rounding out the 2023 flat season but with the deluge of rain that is set to hit the UK over the next few days, will the meeting stand firm and go ahead as planned?

The Betfair Exchange has produced a market seeing whether racing will in fact take place on Saturday, with currently the meeting set to get the all clear.

However, with large proportions of rain set to fall on the UK, more importantly the Berkshire track from now and until racing is supposed to start on Saturday it could leave the exciting meeting in jeopardy.

How does the market read?

The market is strongly in favour of the meeting going ahead currently trading on the Exchange at 1.071/14 to the delight of racing fans with the odds of the meeting being abandoned currently backable at 11.010/1.

At this stage with not much liquidity in the market this could all change and with the more rain set to fall this could see the odds of the meeting being cancelled significantly come in with most the money at this stage being in the lay camp at 1.11/10.

What can we look forward to if racing goes ahead?

If the meeting goes ahead as planned, it is expected to be bottomless ground- if staying on the Straight and Round Course, but if moving to the Inner Flat Course conditions are suprisingly much better and would play to the strengths of the horses who enjoy not as testing conditions.

However, on Friday morning the BHA stated that the going on the Straight and Round Course was soft and soft, heavy in places and on the Inner Flat Course a description of good to soft was given with Going stick readings as follows - Straight: 6.9, Round: 5.8. Inner Flat Course: 7.5.

Check out Tony Calvin's British Champions Day Tips here.

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