Going at SANDOWN, anyone?

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GOING UPDATE-Jump track good-soft, soft in places. Flat course heavy. Going has eased after the morning rain

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The worst of the rain has now passed through Esher @Sandownpark




That was the update yesterday evening but that cannot be right surely imo

zil,is that the flat course reading though ?

GOING: HEAVY (GoingStick 5.2). (Showers)


GOING: Chase course - GOOD TO SOFT (Soft in places); Hurdle course - SOFT (Good to soft in places); Flat course - HEAVY. (Showers)

I agree,tweeted Sandown a couple of times about the ground yesterday,like getting blood out of a stone,told them its poor stuff from a grade 1 track

Sandown confident popular weekend jumps and Flat fixture will go ahead
• Clerk of course says going softest for over 10 years
• Ripon and Wetherby latest cards to come under threat
S


Will Hayler
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 April 2012 14.01 BST
Article history

Sandown are confident they will stage their two-day Flat and jumps fixture but the ground will be very testing.
Sandown's important two-day fixture, which starts on Friday, is certain to be staged in very soft going, but clerk of the course Andrew Cooper believes the meeting is unlikely to join others in falling to the wet weather.

Thursday's cards at Uttoxeter and Beverley have both been abandoned due to waterlogging, while Leicester's card on Saturday has also already fallen by the wayside.

But Sandown's cards, which sees the Bet365 Gold Cup highlighting a mixed card of jumps and Flat racing on the final day of the National Hunt season on Saturday, are set to beat the weather despite an inch of rain falling in the last 24 hours.

"It will be soft, soft ground but as things stand we're not expecting any problems," said clerk of the course Andrew Cooper, who has changed the going on the Flat course to heavy.

"We have had a couple more showers today but they've been fairly light. You can't ever be too certain when you have such an unsettled forecast, but I believe we'll go ahead as scheduled. A lot of the Flat course – the back straight, the bend into the home turn and the sprint course – has not been raced on since the end of last season, and although the hurdle course shares the home straight with the Flat track, we rail off some of the turf from the Tingle Creek meeting onwards to keep a fresh strip back."

Cooper said that the task of keeping as much fresh turf back for this meeting was helped by the fact that the 10 Flat races scheduled for the two days take place over no further than a mile and a quarter.

"That means that the downhill section of the course, where the ground is usually at its softest, isn't used in any Flat race," he said.

"Although it will be very soft and we're being upfront about that, I think it will be less testing than if the ground was very sticky. Horses tend to go through genuinely wet ground better."

Conditions on the jump courses are quicker with the going described as good to soft, soft in places on the chase course and soft, good to soft in places on the hurdles track.

"At this stage of the season, we're usually watering to keep things on the right side of good to firm and this is the softest I can remember since Beau won what was then the Whitbread Gold Cup by a distance in 2000," said Cooper.

"It isn't as soft on the jump courses, as the goingstick readings confirm. Both the hurdles and chase courses were in pretty good condition before the rain as the weather in the winter wasn't as bad as it can be."

Also reporting heavy ground is Chepstow, where 24mm of rain in the last 24 hours has been registered, and Plumpton who have received a similar amount. But there are no inspections planned so far at either track ahead of Friday's racing.

But with Thursday's rain forecast to be heavier in the north of England, Ripon will inspect at 11.30am on Friday morning ahead of Saturday's card.

"We'd just about be all right to race today, but the forecast for the next 24 hours is awful," said Jonjo Sanderson, clerk of the course at Wetherby, due to race on Sunday.

"The problem is that a huge amount of rain is falling after a long dry spell and the ground is not soaking up the moisture as it would normally do.

"There is an internal **** flowing through the course and if we get the sort of amounts of rain some of the forecasts are suggesting tonight, that would burst and then we'd be in trouble."

**** van ....

I know Zil,very odd

gonna be bottomless, its Tidal Bay timr

Taken the 10-1 TT this is the 1st time since he chased IC home at Haydock 18 months ago that he's had this kind of ground

Come the hour TT, Come the hour

Nice to have a proven battler on side wen it turns into a slog

Budd,it makes no sense good luck though,hope ya get beat a nose by WER

had a bit on rare bob in the national tbh could be tempted again