There was welcome news for connections of Time For Sandals as Haydock's Clerk of the Course Daniel Cooper revealed not as much rain as expected had materialised at the venue.
The Commonwealth Cup winner's trainer Harry Eustace was among those on weather-watch ahead of Saturday's feature Betfair Sprint Cup Stakes at the Newton-le-Willows course, with Time For Sandals featuring among 17 final declarations despite Eustace stating he'd be happy to wait for the Flying Five Stakes at the Curragh if Haydock turned soft or heavy.
There is a 'moderate thunderstorm warning' issued by the Met Office for the Haydock area but aside from those obvious risks, recent rainfall has been minimal and decent ground is expected come the weekend.
Speaking on a Thursday lunchtime press Zoom call hosted by The Jockey Club, Cooper said: "We've been forecast showers through much of this week and here and now we're largely missing much of the showers at Haydock. They aren't materialising as much as forecasts suggest.
"So my message would be to treat the rain forecast with caution this week.
"So far today we've had 0.6mm of rain in total and I'm expecting one more rain band today and then a clear outlook through to Saturday, with the odd possible shower on Friday morning but extremely light.
"The one caveat to that is that we are within a 'yellow' warning for thunderstorms and we know they can bring a slightly different weather event. So if we were to get that then it could obviously cause some rainfall but they are incredibly hard to predict.
"It's officially 'good' on the straight course and 'good, good to soft' on the round course. Right now, I would be suggesting that good ground is where we're going to be."
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