WEATHER forecasters suggest that East Anglian racing fans are in for a bonanza this weekend as the rearranged Cambridge University Draghounds meeting at Cottenham is set to take place on Saturday – just 24 hours before the Waveney Harriers fixture at Higham on Sunday.

The Cottenham event was meant to have taken place last Saturday but was postponed owing to a frozen course. With the thermometer set to reach the dizzy heights of double figures in the coming days, both venues are confident of being able to stage racing.

The Draghounds Mens’ Open could be a cracker. Its entries feature the leading Cheltenham Foxhunter candidate, Chapoturgeon, who is already a Cheltenham Festival winner and landed his recent Newbury hunter chase debut in convincing fashion.

His 23 potential opponents include My Flora, who won eight straight races before coming a cropper in that Newbury race; Divine Intavention, who numbers two Ampton triumphs among his six successes in the last 15 months; Caulkin, who might have won a high class race at Thorpe Lodge last month but for crashing out at the last; and the recent Cottenham scorers Earth Dream and Border Fusion.

Overall the seven-race meeting has attracted a very healthy 154 entries. It is scheduled to begin at noon with an eight-entry Hunt Race and run through to 3.30pm when the two and a half mile Maiden is slated to commence. However, both this and the three mile Maiden may have to be divided on the day so nine races are possible.

The Waveney Harriers fixture also starts at noon and runs through until 3.30pm when its seventh race, the Restricted, comes under orders.

Its 96 entries feature six of the seven winners at the January 29th fixture, including It Was Me, who clocked the fastest time of the day when taking a division of the Maiden. It Was Me could come up against the winner of the other division, Macklin, in the aforementioned Restricted.

Cottenham is four miles north of Cambridge near the B1049, post code CB24 8RG. It is best approached using junction 33 of the A14. Take the A10 signed for Ely.

Then take the third left (after the Park and Ride and the Recycling Centre) to Landbeach. Go straight through the village of Landbeach, past the playing field, and take the first left out the other side. The course is half a mile further down this road.

Higham is just to the west of the A12 between Colchester and Ipswich using the B1068 turn-off towards Stoke-by-Nayland, post code CO7 6LE.

Admission will be charged at �10 per head at both meetings with children under 17 allowed in for free.