Cheltenham Racecourse© Photo Healy Racing
With just over a week until the start of the Cheltenham Festival, clerk of the course Simon Claisse has not ruled out the possibility of watering during the meeting.
While Claisse is content with the current state of the ground, temperatures are set to rise towards the end of the week and with little rain forecast, the ground appears set to dry out.
"The ground on the Old Course, which is used for the first two days, is good to soft, soft in places and it is the same on the cross-country course," he told Racing UK.
"The New Course is slightly quicker and is good to soft.
"We are forecast some heavy showers for the next two days, some wintry but only two to three millimetres in total and then it is due to get significantly warmer towards the end of the week.
"The forecast says it could be 6C or 7C overnight and double figures through the day but there is no sign of any more rain beyond Wednesday.
"It's looking like Festival week will be warm and dry with chilly nights, but there are currently no signs we'll see the frost covers.
"Watering through the week is a possibility. We aim to start with ground on the slow side of good, it is difficult to know how fast the ground will dry out, though, so we may need to water through the week which we have done five or six times in the last 14 years."
