Everyone happy as sun shines on feature afternoon at Carlisle
By Racing TV
Last Updated: Wed 24 Jun 2026
Racegoers were bathed in glorious Cumbrian sunshine as Carlisle staged the sole meeting in Britain on Wednesday amid the ongoing heatwave.
With fixtures at Worcester, Salisbury, Kempton Park and Ffos Las called off in the interests of welfare for horses and participants, all eyes were on the biggest day of Carlisle’s regular Flat season.
With temperatures reaching a high of 27C, a healthy crowd was in attendance for an eight-race card featuring the historic Carlisle Bell and the Listed Eternal Stakes – and clerk of the course Harry Phipps was pleased with how his bolstered team responded to the weather.
He said: “We’ve got a really good crowd and this would be our flagship meeting of the Flat season. Obviously we picked up that fixture from Haydock (Lancashire Oaks), but this is a meeting we’re really proud of and we’ve got some nice, competitive racing.
“Extra measures today include having extra staff from Haydock, Aintree and Huntingdon and they are specifically placed in the unsaddling area for unplaced horses. Predominantly we have more horses in there so we have people helping with the cooling process, along with the stable staff and the trainers.
“We’ve got more water in storage and also mobile in the vehicles. We always have that as a minimum, but we’ve gone with elevated levels today.”
The North Yorkshire-based father and son training partnership of Richard and Peter Fahey were among the winners at Carlisle, and Fahey junior was taking a positive view of the prevailing hot spell.
He said: “I’m loving it, I don’t know what everyone’s moaning about – just get a linen shirt on and relax!
“We’ve got great airflow in the barns and everything where we are, so there’s no issues.”
Having been on the continent in even warmer weather last weekend, Charlie Johnston can see no issue with racing continuing in Britain.
“I was in Milan on Sunday and we were racing in 40C,” said the Middleham-based trainer.
“Yes it’s hot, but I think we’re maybe getting a little bit carried away. If you apply a bit of common sense, it’s quite easy to navigate these temperatures.”
Thursday’s meetings at Newmarket and Nottingham and Friday’s fixtures at Doncaster and Yarmouth will start earlier than originally scheduled to avoid racing when temperatures are at their highest.
Newmarket-based James Tate, who has three declared runners on the July course, is not asking too much of his string as they adapt to the heatwave.
He said: “We’ve been coping absolutely fine with the heat, but just today it’s got particularly warm.
“I think the horses cope with it fine, it’s just a little bit about acclimatisation. We’re getting them out early, we haven’t done any hard work today anyway and we’ve got a swimming pool as well so that helps a lot.
“The early start time is a big help to avoid the worst of it and obviously with the horses doing more we’re out early when it’s cooler.”
The first race at Newmarket is due off at 10.45am, with Nottingham’s card getting under way at 10.30am.
Doncaster’s first race on Friday is scheduled for 10.15am and Yarmouth starts at 10.30am.
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