Cheltenham's Clerk of the Course Jon Pullin is happy with conditions ahead of this year's Festival with the ground currently soft.
The racecourse recorded over 20mm of rain over the course of the weekend and Pullin revealed that if he were to be racing today [Tuesday], the official description on both the Old and New Courses would be soft.
The forecast provides some optimism that conditions will dry out ahead of the opening day with Pullin saying: “Forecast-wise, a couple of frosts are expected this week and then it looks like fairly settled conditions for next week with no extremes of weather.
"Next week looks mainly dry, with just some showers on the odd day. We should also get back up to double-digit daytime temperatures.
“The Old Course has shown great recovery since we raced on it in October and November and it is in really good shape.
"Obviously we have raced on the New Course more recently in December and January. In an ideal world, we would have had some warmer weather but given the weather that we have had, it has recovered fairly well.
“We have also been saving ground on both courses for The Festival. I am happy with where we are currently and preparations are going well.”
A number of changes have been made to the race programme for this year's Cheltenham Festival and officials are happy with how they have been received.
“From a racing point of view, we are happy with both the quality and quantity of entries on the back of the changes we have made to the race programme this year," he continued.
“The new Grade Two Jack Richards Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase is shaping up really well. The proof will be in a fortnight’s time when we see what runs and what wins but on paper at this stage we are very happy with the race as it is.
“I think we are 31 entries versus 21 last year for the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase now it is a handicap once again.
"When we announced this change, it certainly seemed to spark interest among some of the trainers and we have seen different horses running the two Cross Country races we have run so far this season which seems to have followed through with the entries for the race at The Festival, so people have clearly referenced it reverting to a handicap.”
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