Our man at the track on day one of the Cheltenham November Meeting, an afternoon where Jonbon delivered but the ground and weather were central characters too.
There are many days you really wouldn’t want to be a Clerk of the Course. And this is one.
Jon Pullin is on his walkie talkie as the runners go around the pre-parade ring before the Shloer Chase. It’s a glorious autumn day, barely a cloud in the sky. Temperatures have risen sufficiently to take the overnight frost out of the ground.
Minus 4.5C was sharper than they’d anticipated. The window for watering has seemingly slammed closed now. The covers will be deployed overnight as it’s going below zero again, the ground opened up by day one.
You’re grateful the show is still on the road as you look around the rest of the Jockey Club South West estate. Exeter and Wincanton have abandoned their latest fixtures, the rain we keep saying must be coming, still isn’t.
And the sun is low. Not low enough to doll off fences, but low enough to make a walkie talkie crackle.
You crave a sense of normality. And we get it 20 minutes later.
