Contractors have confirmed that the roof on the Duchess' Stand was made of aluminum no thicker than a credit card.

The roofing material was 0.9mm thick, manufactured by Euroclad.

According to Wilmott Dixon it is commonly used on large buildings around the country.

A spokesman also confirmed that it was designed to withstand winds of 47mph and was designed to comply with regulations taking into consideration location, exposure, height of building, shape and size.

However, the winds last Tuesday, January are believed to have gusted at 60mph and a weather expert has said that such speeds could be expected in the area every 5 to 10 years, particularly in such an exposed spot as the Downs Willmott Dixon is confident that "freak" winds were responsible rather than there being any fault with the roof itself.

Three massive cranes remained on site this morning to continue with repairs to the roof.

A spokesman for Willmott Dixon, said: “We are carrying out works now to make the roof safe, remove the damaged roofing materials and to temporarily waterproof the affected area.

This will be complete by Friday 13 and will allow Epsom to hold pre arranged conferences that they had pre booked for the week of the January 16.

The grandstand has been shut to non-construction personnel this week but has not affected day-to-day operations as no bookings were arranged.

During the course of this week, Epsom’s insurance company is undertaking investigations to assess the cause of the failure and until such time the investigation is complete we are unable to confirm the actions that will be taken to repair or replace the damaged sheets.

We are facilitating access on to the roof to enable the client’s insurance company to carry out their investigations”.

Epsom and Ewell Council have also confirmed their planning inspectors, who have been on site throughout, will complete their inspection by the end of this week.

A spokesman said: “Later on this week inspectors will be on site to finalise their report (regarding the said damage and repairs) as well as ensuring the repairs are watertight and advising the racecourse on the best way forward.”

The building's architects, Roberts Limbrick, were contacted by the Epsom Guardian but said they were unable to comment whilst insurance claims were ongoing, and structural engineers, Capita Symonds also refused to comment.