Cheltenham to cover up

Cheltenham officials have taken the decision to cover parts of the track to guard against the threat of frost ahead of this weekend's high-profile two-day meeting.

With the cold snap currently threatening race meetings across the country, Cheltenham's clerk of the course Simon Claisse is doing everything in his power to ensure the double-header can take place.

Saturday's card is set to feature four graded contests including the Boylesports.com Gold Cup and the Boylesports.com International.

"We got down to minus two overnight and we have decided to cover the mile of the track that is shared with the old course that we raced on in October and November," said Claisse.

"We obviously move on to the new course for this meeting so 75 per cent of the ground is unraced on and this will not be covered.

"These covers will go down on Wednesday afternoon and in addition to that we are covering all the take offs and landings and all the crossings as normal."