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Watering process could begin tomorrow
Scott Burton has spoken to Cheltenham's clerk of the course Jon Pullin for the latest news on the ground.
The going improved to good to soft, soft in places (from soft, good to soft in places) this afternoon and a mainly dry week is forecast.
Pullin anticipates watering before the meeting, particularly for the New course, which hosts the action on Thursday and Friday.
He said: "We’re certainly starting to see it dry a little bit quicker now. We’ve been dry since last Thursday and we’ve had some pretty warm afternoons for the last few days around 13 or 14 degrees. That said we have had some overnight frosts, though very little this morning.
"There’s some uncertainty as to how much rain we may see on Friday. Some of the forecasts are showing just a few light showers, 1-2mm. Others are saying we might get a little bit more than that, maybe 3-4mm. The weekend then looks dry and warm, with temperatures around 15 degrees, potentially 16 degrees on Sunday.
"So it is only going to dry from here if we only get light rain on Friday. Again there’s a little bit of rain around on Monday but a lot of uncertainty as to how much we’ll get. The rain band on Monday is to the south of us, we’re right on the edge and at the moment it doesn’t look as though we’ll get much.
"So with a drying forecast, hopefully there will be some more certainty from the updates we get tomorrow around volumes for Friday and potentially we could start some irrigation if required. We may start tomorrow, just depending on what the updated forecast says.
"I think particularly the New course we’ll need to irrigate because again, next week is looking dry. Cooler temperatures, only nine or ten degrees but largely dry through the week so I think we’ll need to do something for the New course to keep us in a good place for Thursday."
https://www.racingpost.com/news/festivals/cheltenham-festival/cheltenham-festival-countdown-breaking-news-and-insight-as-latest-day-one-entries-set-to-be-revealed-rhMI67m93eb5/
Scott Burton has spoken to Cheltenham's clerk of the course Jon Pullin for the latest news on the ground.
The going improved to good to soft, soft in places (from soft, good to soft in places) this afternoon and a mainly dry week is forecast.
Pullin anticipates watering before the meeting, particularly for the New course, which hosts the action on Thursday and Friday.
He said: "We’re certainly starting to see it dry a little bit quicker now. We’ve been dry since last Thursday and we’ve had some pretty warm afternoons for the last few days around 13 or 14 degrees. That said we have had some overnight frosts, though very little this morning.
"There’s some uncertainty as to how much rain we may see on Friday. Some of the forecasts are showing just a few light showers, 1-2mm. Others are saying we might get a little bit more than that, maybe 3-4mm. The weekend then looks dry and warm, with temperatures around 15 degrees, potentially 16 degrees on Sunday.
"So it is only going to dry from here if we only get light rain on Friday. Again there’s a little bit of rain around on Monday but a lot of uncertainty as to how much we’ll get. The rain band on Monday is to the south of us, we’re right on the edge and at the moment it doesn’t look as though we’ll get much.
"So with a drying forecast, hopefully there will be some more certainty from the updates we get tomorrow around volumes for Friday and potentially we could start some irrigation if required. We may start tomorrow, just depending on what the updated forecast says.
"I think particularly the New course we’ll need to irrigate because again, next week is looking dry. Cooler temperatures, only nine or ten degrees but largely dry through the week so I think we’ll need to do something for the New course to keep us in a good place for Thursday."
https://www.racingpost.com/news/festivals/cheltenham-festival/cheltenham-festival-countdown-breaking-news-and-insight-as-latest-day-one-entries-set-to-be-revealed-rhMI67m93eb5/
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This obsession with good to soft ground.
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low pressure coming in end of week, bits & pieces showers/rain between now & next week
g/s, soft pl watering shouldn't even in the conversation |
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going stick readings as of yesterday 5.3 old 5.7 new
historically that's soft ground cheltenham, old course its the heavy side of soft would be lovely spring ground if left alone |
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Should be banned during winter tbh…..
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They’re damned if they do water and they’re damned if they don’t.
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Always gets me that they treat the weather forecast as gospel, when it’s basically a guess from a load of different models
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6.4 today
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The Mickey Mouse track is 4.2
Water butts sprung a leak  |
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The keenness for watering before and during the festival I believe stems from the need to avoid criticism from the animal rights campaigners and undoubtedly driven by the jockey club to 'avoid' casualties. The impact of this is to make ante post betting for the festival even more challenging/impossible. I live locally and can assess the ground based on rainfall but I have no idea of the additional watering impact. It appears that more and more good ground horses will miss the festival and go to Aintree. as it stands I have no idea what he is trying to get the new course ground to be on Thursday/Friday. Surely horses jump better off good ground? Based on the clerk of the course's quote on the Chapman/Brennan podcast this week he considers it his duty to get day 1 to be 'good jumping ground' which he defines as good/soft and soft. Good luck if trying to interpret this in terms of the depth of his watering can....
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Main trainers on the phone daily giving earache…..imv…
Ruined many a meeting imo… |
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Agreed re the trainers but ultimately Nicky's tend to prefer good going on the whole while the Irish will (generally) operate on softer so it's never an easy one to balance. I take the view that the animal rights pressure means the jockey club want to be able to defend themselves if therre are any casualties that 'they've done all they could'. In today's world risk of injury is taking greater priority in rule making.
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Remember 2022 in his first year he watered after the first day when the going was officially g/s but many claimed it was on the good side and then they got 21mm of rain for the Wednesday. Surely at times they've got to trust in 'God' and as long as it is safe good ground (it rarely will be firm at Cheltenham) then in the words of McCartney 'let it be'....
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I remember Bath reading hard,can’t remember any horses being destroyed on course….
Final Bath meeting always had the same type of horses… This obsession with water is madness…… |
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low pressure coming in end of week, bits & pieces showers/rain between now & next week
g/s, soft pl watering shouldn't even in the conversation 100% Agree, its a nonsense. |
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@GLynchRacing
· 57m Don’t see why the ground for the Cheltenham festival can’t be watered enough to start on softer than we are getting this week - ie. NH ground. 5mm on parts of the old course over the last week doesn’t sound enough. imagine writing this crap |
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"hasn't watered enough"
WOW |
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its a spring festival gavin should be spring ground
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Light shower today - barely 1mm but starting to get much coller and overcast. He doesn't even declare how much watering he's done but given the weather here recently he must have put a lot on the new course to have soft in places.
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"Pro PUnter" G.Lynch clearly backed horses favouring soft ground horses.
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I think so geoff
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