Cheltenham Going Officially Rated as Good to Soft

Nine days away from the kick-off of the 2011 Cheltenham Festival and the clerk of the course Simon Claisse has officially upgraded the going and it is presently rated as good to soft. Over the past few days the going had been listed as soft, good to soft in places.

Both the chase and hurdles courses are now considered good to soft. The exception being the cross-country course where the going is good to soft, soft in places.

Cheltenham has avoided rain since last Monday but the prospect of overnight forst, and even snow, loom large in the forecast later this week.

The spate of unwelcome weather is not expected to alter things in the build-up to next week as the wintry conditions are expected to fade out by the end of the weekend. Speaking to the Racing Post, Claisse declared “There are a couple of overnight frosts forecast for before Wednesday, but they are not expected to be too bad and we are expecting day-time temperatures of 7C and 8C.” The current long-range forecast only shows the possibility of snow on the Saturday following Cheltenham.