THE executive director of Hereford Racecourse is hopeful it will be third time lucky after a second meeting had to be transferred to Worcester.

Staff decided to call off the 'Locals Raceday' meeting that was scheduled for Tuesday after 'unseasonable weather' and a lack of water supply meant they were not confident the ground would be safe to jump on.

It is the second successive meeting they have had to transfer to Worcester after similar circumstances forced their hand last month.

Therefore, no meetings have yet to take place in the new season, frustrating many punters.

The decision was made last Friday prior to a lot of rain hitting the city over the weekend.

But Rebecca Davies, who is also clerk of the course at the racecourse, says that very little rain hit the site and weather forecasts can change on an hourly basis.

And with ongoing maintenance work taking place on Cargill's reservoir, the racecourse were unable to water the track.

They will now try again on November 29, with that meeting raising funds for ABF, The Soldier's Charity.

"We just seem to miss the rainfall," said Rebecca Davies, who is also the clerk of the course at Hereford," said Davies.

"We haven't had a significant amount of rainfall for a while and haven't had the capacity to water the track.

"Because of that, we were not confident there was not enough safe jumping ground.

"People believe that because they see it raining, we will be alright, but we only had 3mm which was not enough.

"We get five day forecasts every day, but that can alway change.

"Last Thursday, we lost 2mm of rain due to evaporation.

"Equine safety is always my first concern and I make no apologies for making the decision, which I think was the right call.

"The ground was firm in places so we weren't confident the ground was safe enough for jumping."

The racecourse are due to start work on building a reservoir, which should commence next month.

It should be completed by spring, allowing the racecourse to have full control of their own water supply.

There are five meetings scheduled before March, with a popular Christmas fixture list taking place on December 16.

But Davies is confident that meetings will go ahead.

"The law of averages say that we should get more rain and potentially heavy rain is forecast for next week, so I hope we get that," she said.

"People get frustrated, I get that, and I am happy to speak to anyone about it on the phone.

"Our next fixture is on November 29 and will be our first charity race day.

"We've had a delayed stat and no one wants to get going again than us."

Tickets for the meeting can be purchased by visiting hereford-racecourse.co.uk or by calling 01432 273560.