The improving scene at Cheltenham on Friday
The improving scene at Cheltenham on Friday

Cheltenham given green light for Saturday card


Officials at Cheltenham have given the go-ahead to racing this weekend, which will feature the BetVictor Gold Cup on Saturday.

The course has recovered after being hit by 40 millimetres of rain on Thursday, which led to the abandonment of racing on Friday due to waterlogging and parts of the track being under water.

An area of false ground had caused a worry for clerk of the course Simon Claisse early on Friday, but the all-clear was given following an afternoon inspection, with the going described as soft, heavy in places.

Claisse said: "We've passed the afternoon inspection. We're going to have to make some amendments out on the track to enable us to get down the old hill on the chase course.

"That will involve bypassing that fence and taking the chasers on to the hurdles course and in order to do that we have to take out the third-last hurdle. Otherwise, the chase and hurdle tracks are unaffected.

"The ground remains soft, heavy in places."

He added: "We've also given the go ahead for the cross-country chase on Sunday, although we will omit fence four, which is the Aintree fence, which is jumped twice and is also fence 27.

"We were encouraged early this morning to see that most of the flood water had receded. There was still some surface water lying around the site.

"The false ground coming down the hill had improved sufficiently on the hurdle track for us to be able to give the meeting the go-ahead.

"The forecast, other than a few showers, is for two dry days."

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