Newbury watch weather as cold snap forecast Newbury officials will continue to monitor weather updates very closely for their three-day meeting culminating in the Hennessy Gold Cup on Saturday. Colder conditions are expected as the weekend approaches and the track staff will take all the necessary precautions. "Things are fine, we've got a lovely covering of grass and we are looking forward to the weekend," said clerk of the course Richard Osgood. "The weather forecast was spot on this morning. We were cloudy overnight and have had a little bit of fine drizzle, nothing more. "It's going to get colder as the week goes on, but I don't really want to go too much into that at the moment because it keeps changing." The chase course is described as good to soft and the hurdle track good to soft, soft in places. The entire track at Newcastle is to covered in a bid to minimise the threat of frost ahead of Saturday's Fighting Fifth Hurdle. "The ground has eased. We've had 22 millimetres over the weekend and it's been raining on and off this morning," said clerk of the course James Armstrong. "I would say we've had another couple of millimetres so we're not far off having had an inch of rain since Friday. "Beyond the next day or two it turns colder from late Wednesday onwards and they are talking about the whole country getting cold, particularly our part of the world. "We could get light wintry showers and possibly some snow, but we will have to see if that materialises. "It's the threat of frost that is our concern because it is something we can try to do something about. "Temperatures at night could drop down to minus one and our forecasters say they could get lower than that to minus three our minus four. "We've been in touch with a company that is coming up tomorrow to cover the entire course so that we can protect the entire track with frost covers and get them down good and early to make sure we can alleviate any frost getting into the ground. "That's all we can do and hope that it doesn't get as cold as the forecasters are saying. "I'd be very optimistic at the minute. We'll just have to see what the rest of the week holds and keep our fingers crossed." The going was described this morning as soft, good to soft in places.
