Chelenham going................

I'd love to see a really soft ground festival again,like in the days of Master Smudge or Master Oats....would be ideal for Many Clouds this year

He will be watering soon

a dryer week ahead..................

the problem last season is that didnt water and it ended up nearly g-f on the 3rd day even after the wettest winter ever.

Total lottery guessing what the going could be, it will be proper racing ground on tuesday, latter, it will be either false or stupid.

With just over a week until the start of the Cheltenham Festival, clerk of the course Simon Claisse has not ruled out the possibility of watering during the meeting.

While Claisse is content with the current state of the ground, temperatures are set to rise towards the end of the week and with little rain forecast, the ground looks set to dry out.

"The ground on the Old Course which is used for the first two days is good to soft, soft in places and it is the same on the cross-country course," he told Racing UK.

"The New Course is slightly quicker and is good to soft.

"We are forecast some heavy showers for the next two days, some wintry but only two to three millimetres in total and then it is due to get significantly warmer towards the end of the week.

"The forecast says it could be 6C or 7C overnight and double figures through the day but there is no sign of any more rain beyond Wednesday.

"It's looking like Festival week will be warm and dry with chilly nights, but there are currently no signs we'll see the frost covers.

"Watering through the week is a possibility. We aim to start with ground on the slow side of good, it is difficult to know how fast the ground will dry out, though, so we may need to water through the week which we have done five or six times in the last 14 years."


Now just wait for all the " my horse will be better on better ground" bollox as the trainers start to crank up the hype.

it will be good to soft as always..its the ideal starting point and with the forecast on policy on watering. 4-9 should be 1-10

the istabraq yrs
it will be good to soft as always..its the ideal starting point and with the forecast on policy on watering. 4-9 should be 1-10
Whilst the accepted perception is its allways good to soft it aint the case:

last 12 years
2 soft
5 good
5 good /soft
With a dry 7 days forecast im not sure it should be 1/10 unless he waters on sunday

The prob is (as in many cases) the "official" going is not what they are telling us
Last yr it was g/s  when it was more gd ground. With the forecast (if correct) its going to be no slower than g/s for the start of the 4days, prob gd in places.

it should be 1-10 for several reasons but as in all of us we see and find value differently...firstly with the current ground as it is soft ground is no chance what so ever....I live not far away and its been a glorious spring day, the forecast over the weekend is of dry, warm lovely festival weather..the 2 options are clearly good or good to soft and with claisses/Cheltenham policy on where they like the meeting to start there is no way they will start the festival on good ground with 4 dry days to come....I imagine they may water on sunday/Monday a little and the official call come tapes up will be the recent one of good to soft good in places..it may well be simply good in truth but the call will be good to soft...if not I ll be down and chasing before the supreme

For something thats occured 5 times out of 12 i personally dont see 1/10 as punting value Istabraq.
Either way i dont mind as laid as much as i could on soft

Isn't the latest forecast for some rain Sunday & Monday evening? In anycase, Saturday is due to be warm and sunny so that rain will be needed to replace the evaporation.

Looks a distinct possibility he will start watering tommorrow!

Dear god no. The man is a lunatic.

Watering over the wkend. Ground now g/s gd in pls.
Dry warm weather forecast for most of next wk.

Mar 6, 2015 -- 5:10PM, Millerracing67 wrote:

Watering over the wkend. Ground now g/s gd in pls. Dry warm weather forecast for most of next wk.

Not anymore it's not, Tuesday the only dry day now !!!!

OFFICIALS at Cheltenham racecourse do not intend to do any further watering before the festival starts on Tuesday.

The going remained unchanged as good to soft, good in places on Sunday afternoon on the Old course, which will be used on Tuesday and Wednesday, the New course used Thursday and Friday and the cross-country course.

A selective watering programme, started on Friday morning, was completed by lunchtime Saturday on all three courses with three or four millimetres put on to maintain the  going description.

The forecast is for a little light rain Sunday and Monday (up to two millimetres), with temperatures up to a maximum of 12C on those days.

The GoingStick reading is 6.8 on the Old course, 6.9 on the New course and 7.1 on the cross-country course.

Mon  1.6mm

Tue  0.0

Wed  5.0mm (overtnight)

Thu  from the start of racing until early Fri A.M 6.6mm

Fri  day 0.0

                          G.L.

Chelts clerk of the course give a diff view 2day.
Chance of a couple of mil here & their over the 4days.
Wont change the ground very much if at all.
g/s gd in pls to start, prob more towards gd on Wed.

14.4 mm expected by racing.................

Just started a few minutes ago.

UPDATE
Said to have had 5mm......................3.5 to come............prob 9mm in all.................G.L.

There was a bucket load heading for the track when I last posted...........the wind has changed & there will be little more