This afternoon's meeting at the Cheltenham Festival has been abandoned due to high winds.

Officials made the startling announcement after another morning of intense gusts at Prestbury Park.

All six races due to take place this afternoon will instead be staged on Thursday and Friday.

Today's feature race was the Seasons Holidays Queen Mother Chase.

Cheltenham managing director, Edward Gillespie, told Channel 4 Racing: "We had a forecast last night indicating that wind speeds would gust over 50mph, up to and including 3pm this afternoon.

"We had a look this morning and that has sadly been reinforced.

"That means many of the temporary facilities would not be safe at that level.

"The reason we are not racing today is for the safety of the customer."