Sandown’s Sunday fixture was abandoned after just three races after heavy rain left the course unraceable.

The ground was predominantly good at the Esher venue on Saturday afternoon, but persistent rainfall during the course of the morning led to the going being changed to soft and later heavy.

The first three races took place, albeit with obstacles omitted both on the chase track and over hurdles, but an inspection was called prior to the feature event of the afternoon – the Future Stars Intermediate Chase.

An inquiry took place after a delegation checked on conditions and the decision was ultimately made to call off proceedings on safety grounds.

Sandown’s clerk of the course, Andrew Cooper, told Racing TV: “Ultimately that latter five millimetres of rain we had has tipped it – that has taken us to over an inch today.

“Purely looking at the ground conditions at the time of the inspection, you could arguably say you could just about slop through it, but the biggest concern is the ability to promptly service a medical veterinary incident on the track.

“There’s a lot of areas of the course here at Sandown which are some way away from a roadway and the ground conditions, such as they were after the running of the third race, prompted my veterinary team to raise their concerns about their ability to service an injured horse or jockey.

“I think when you’re in that territory, I don’t think it’s for me as the clerk of the course to suggest that we should keep going. The most important thing we do is equine and human safety.”

Despite the early finish champion trainer Paul Nicholls still enjoyed a double on the card, with 13-2 chance Halo Des Obeaux landing the opening Jumps Are Back Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle under Freddie Gingell and 9-4 joint-favourite Solo opening his account over fences in the Celebration Of Autumn Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase in the hands of Harry Cobden.

“That’s 50 up for the season and it is Freddie’s first winner for us,” Nicholls said after Halo Des Obeaux’s victory.

“He was a typical four-year-old last season. He was weak as weak could be. He has had another summer and he is a stronger horse. That was just the job.

“Solo didn’t really jump last season. He was a bit unlucky not to win first time over fences at Ascot, then he fell apart a bit.

“I knew he had come back right. He was just a more mature and fitter horse. He jumped superbly and galloped all the way to the line.

“These big French horses want more time than people think. We’ve done some serious work to get him fit as he is a big tank of a horse.”

What proved to be the final race of the day, the Falling Leaves Maiden Hurdle, went to the Jamie Snowden-trained Colonel Harry (100-30), ridden by Gavin Sheehan.

Snowden said: “He quickened up like a really smart horse at the bottom of the straight there and hopefully he can be pretty smart.

“The Tolworth Hurdle has kind of been at the back of our minds. He is a nice horse.”