Heavy rain in recent days has led to this year's Middleton point-to-point race meeting at Whitwell-on-the-Hill being abandoned.

David Brotherton, the race secretary, said it had been hoped that about 100 horses would participate in the six races scheduled for this Saturday.

But he said the course at Whitwell was waterlogged and they had been forced to abandon the event - one of only a handful of times it has been called off since 1929.

Mr Brotherton said: "We had 69 millimetres of rain in March and it has been very wet since the beginning of this month.

"It's unusual to have to call it off. It should be beautiful at this time of the year, but we had the beautiful weather in February this year - that was the problem."

The highlight of the Middleton meet would have been the Grimthorpe Gold Cup, a mixed open race which attracted a number of entries from outside Yorkshire.

The meeting is one of the classic series of point-to-point races which also includes the Lady Dudley Cup and the Lord Ashton of Hyde Cup.

The Staintondale point-to-point at Charm Park, Wykeham, is due to go ahead as scheduled on Easter Monday, April 13. It has attracted 151 entries.

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