• Gold Cup winner to have Cheltenham Festival prep race
• Oscar Whisky wins easily on Kempton all-weather card

Betfair Day at Newbury, one of the most valuable cards of the jumps season outside the major Festivals, will be staged almost in its entirety next Friday afternoon after it was lost to the weather in its traditional Saturday slot for the third time in seven years. Entrance to the track will be free.

The meeting was called off morning after the track was covered by 4cm of snow on Thursday night.

Negotiations between the British Horseracing Authority, Betfair, the Levy Board and Channel 4 Racing to guarantee coverage and funding of the meeting continued for much of the day, and concluded when Channel 4 agreed to televise the main events on the rearranged card in a programme between 12.10 and 1.40.

The Grade One Scilly Isles Novice Chase, originally switched to Newbury from Sandown the previous weekend, will remain as part of a seven-race meeting. Original entries will stand for the Betfair Hurdle, in for which Zarkandar, last year’s Triumph Hurdle winner, was the ante-post favourite, while all other races will be reopened with entries to be made by noon on Saturday. The inclusion of a Grade One race on the card also means that Sam Waley-Cohen, who would otherwise be serving a suspension for a whip offence, will be free to ride Long Run, last year’s Gold Cup winner, in the Denman Chase.

The rescheduling of the Newbury card, along with a weather forecast that predicts a steady rise in temperatures in Berkshire over the next few days, will be a considerable relief to trainers, who need to get a final run into major contenders for next month’s Cheltenham Festival.

Nicky Henderson, whose team for the Newbury meeting was expected to include both Long Run and Sprinter Sacre, the ante-post favourite for the Arkle Trophy, said here that he expects both to line up for the rearranged meeting.

“Long Run went to Cheltenham last year without a run [after Christmas] but my inclination is just that he is probably better with a race,” Henderson said. “But it’s getting close enough now, you just like getting these things out of the way or not doing them at all, one of the two.

“There are things we’ve got to talk about, but it is certainly my intention to run [Long Run] at the moment. At this time of year, we’re desperate for the races, to be honest. I would like Sprinter Sacre to have another run, but the only place that Binocular [the 2010 Champion Hurdle winner] can go is [the Morebattle Hurdle at] Kelso [on Wednesday] or probably nowhere at all, because I really can’t see any alternative for him.”

Henderson saddled a short-priced double here after the track survived the overnight snow to stage a card of two-mile Flat races for National Hunt horses on its Polytrack circuit.

Henderson took the second race with Tetlami, a likely runner in the Supreme Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham next month, while Oscar Whisky, a contender for the World Hurdle at the Festival, took the concluding event at odds of 1-16.

“In fairness to both of them, it was exactly what I wanted to do,” Henderson said. “They didn’t need hard races and they’ve had really good gallops. It just gives us a chance to back off a week. What Barry [Geraghty] did say was that [Oscar Whisky's] race felt like the best race by a long way. The only other race I could see for Oscar Whisky was the National Spirit at Fontwell. Two and a half miles in very soft ground with less than three weeks [before the World Hurdle], you’re just taking it close enough. So job done.”

“Well done Kempton and the BHA [for staging the meeting] because it helps us. It’s a mixed bag of horses we’ve brought here but we’ve brought them here for various reasons. It’s half a race, if that, it’s more than a gallop but it’s not a race, but it helps them.”

Tetlami is top-priced at 16-1 for the Supreme Novice Hurdle, a race in which Henderson may field an extensive team. “Keys should have run tomorrow, and Simonsig will run next week, they must have races,” the trainer said. “All The Aces needs a run, and there’s also Darlan [though] some of them might move up to the two-and-a-half-mile division.”

The only race that will be missing from the rearranged Newbury card is its three-mile novice chase, which was due to provide Grands Crus with his final race before Cheltenham, and help connections to decide whether to run in the RSA Chase for novices or in the Gold Cup.

The race will be lost as Ascot is due to stage the Reynoldstown Novice Chase over the same trip the following day, though David Pipe, the trainer of Grands Crus, said on Friday that he has yet to debate the possibility of a run in the Reynoldstown with the owners of Grands Crus. “I’ve not had a chance to discuss it with the owners, but he doesn’t have to have another run [before Cheltenham],” Pipe said. “He’s got enough experience already.”

• Gold Cup winner to have Cheltenham Festival prep race
• Oscar Whisky wins easily on Kempton all-weather card

Betfair Day at Newbury, one of the most valuable cards of the jumps season outside the major Festivals, will be staged almost in its entirety next Friday afternoon after it was lost to the weather in its traditional Saturday slot for the third time in seven years. Entrance to the track will be free.

The meeting was called off morning after the track was covered by 4cm of snow on Thursday night.

Negotiations between the British Horseracing Authority, Betfair, the Levy Board and Channel 4 Racing to guarantee coverage and funding of the meeting continued for much of the day, and concluded when Channel 4 agreed to televise the main events on the rearranged card in a programme between 12.10 and 1.40.

The Grade One Scilly Isles Novice Chase, originally switched to Newbury from Sandown the previous weekend, will remain as part of a seven-race meeting. Original entries will stand for the Betfair Hurdle, in for which Zarkandar, last year’s Triumph Hurdle winner, was the ante-post favourite, while all other races will be reopened with entries to be made by noon on Saturday. The inclusion of a Grade One race on the card also means that Sam Waley-Cohen, who would otherwise be serving a suspension for a whip offence, will be free to ride Long Run, last year’s Gold Cup winner, in the Denman Chase.

The rescheduling of the Newbury card, along with a weather forecast that predicts a steady rise in temperatures in Berkshire over the next few days, will be a considerable relief to trainers, who need to get a final run into major contenders for next month’s Cheltenham Festival.

Nicky Henderson, whose team for the Newbury meeting was expected to include both Long Run and Sprinter Sacre, the ante-post favourite for the Arkle Trophy, said here that he expects both to line up for the rearranged meeting.

“Long Run went to Cheltenham last year without a run [after Christmas] but my inclination is just that he is probably better with a race,” Henderson said. “But it’s getting close enough now, you just like getting these things out of the way or not doing them at all, one of the two.

“There are things we’ve got to talk about, but it is certainly my intention to run [Long Run] at the moment. At this time of year, we’re desperate for the races, to be honest. I would like Sprinter Sacre to have another run, but the only place that Binocular [the 2010 Champion Hurdle winner] can go is [the Morebattle Hurdle at] Kelso [on Wednesday] or probably nowhere at all, because I really can’t see any alternative for him.”

Henderson saddled a short-priced double here after the track survived the overnight snow to stage a card of two-mile Flat races for National Hunt horses on its Polytrack circuit.

Henderson took the second race with Tetlami, a likely runner in the Supreme Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham next month, while Oscar Whisky, a contender for the World Hurdle at the Festival, took the concluding event at odds of 1-16.

“In fairness to both of them, it was exactly what I wanted to do,” Henderson said. “They didn’t need hard races and they’ve had really good gallops. It just gives us a chance to back off a week. What Barry [Geraghty] did say was that [Oscar Whisky's] race felt like the best race by a long way. The only other race I could see for Oscar Whisky was the National Spirit at Fontwell. Two and a half miles in very soft ground with less than three weeks [before the World Hurdle], you’re just taking it close enough. So job done.”

“Well done Kempton and the BHA [for staging the meeting] because it helps us. It’s a mixed bag of horses we’ve brought here but we’ve brought them here for various reasons. It’s half a race, if that, it’s more than a gallop but it’s not a race, but it helps them.”

Tetlami is top-priced at 16-1 for the Supreme Novice Hurdle, a race in which Henderson may field an extensive team. “Keys should have run tomorrow, and Simonsig will run next week, they must have races,” the trainer said. “All The Aces needs a run, and there’s also Darlan [though] some of them might move up to the two-and-a-half-mile division.”

The only race that will be missing from the rearranged Newbury card is its three-mile novice chase, which was due to provide Grands Crus with his final race before Cheltenham, and help connections to decide whether to run in the RSA Chase for novices or in the Gold Cup.

The race will be lost as Ascot is due to stage the Reynoldstown Novice Chase over the same trip the following day, though David Pipe, the trainer of Grands Crus, said on Friday that he has yet to debate the possibility of a run in the Reynoldstown with the owners of Grands Crus. “I’ve not had a chance to discuss it with the owners, but he doesn’t have to have another run [before Cheltenham],” Pipe said. “He’s got enough experience already.”