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Cheltenham weather forecast

Bigfish said:
Forget any picks that need good ground to give their best.
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I dont understand why people keep saying this? The ground was G/S before the snow arrived. The snowfall is comparable to light rain. There isnt much rain forecast for the next ten days? I cant see any reason it will be any softer than G/S myself.
 
Just how much will the current bad weather impact on a horses prep for the Festival? Will it be little more than a nuisance because most of the big boys have some sort of all weather gallop or is it something thing that needs to be taken into account when making our selections?

Any of the major training centres escaped relatively unscathed?
 
Can't Catch Me said:
I dont understand why people keep saying this? The ground was G/S before the snow arrived. The snowfall is comparable to light rain. There isnt much rain forecast for the next ten days? I cant see any reason it will be any softer than G/S myself.
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I agree with this. Being an enforced snow expert ( based in Boston MA where we often get 100+ inches in winter) the normal rule of thumb is 5 inches of snow (what they said they had**) equals half an inch of rain. Looking at the photos it seems that most of the snow on the course was light and was easily blown around creating the drifts. If that's the case I doubt the actual effect on the course would be much more than the equivalent of 1/3rd of an inch; that could easily be absorbed over the next week and a half.

**No less an authority than the The Sun reported only three inches of snow
 
Part of the issue could be that Claisse had talked (a week or two back) about wanting it to warmup to help the grass grow on the course. That certainly hasn't happened. An there is a bit of rain forecast next week. So there's a chance the grass covering may not be perfect to receive that rain...creating that gluey sort of soft.
 
TCH29 said:
Part of the issue could be that Claisse had talked (a week or two back) about wanting it to warmup to help the grass grow on the course. That certainly hasn't happened. An there is a bit of rain forecast next week. So there's a chance the grass covering may not be perfect to receive that rain...creating that gluey sort of soft.
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A very fair point. Hopefully, the fact that it had dried out to good to soft, good in places with poor grass growth conditions provides some hope it may 'bounce back' from the snow and cold. I always hope for good ground at the Festival but, after this week, am just relieved it's going to go ahead and will happily take any ground conditions.
 
TCH29 said:
Part of the issue could be that Claisse had talked (a week or two back) about wanting it to warmup to help the grass grow on the course. That certainly hasn't happened. An there is a bit of rain forecast next week. So there's a chance the grass covering may not be perfect to receive that rain...creating that gluey sort of soft.
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Agree it could be an issue but the festival is run on entirely fresh ground not used since the previous festival so the ground has repaired and grown back plenty enough...
 
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Looks back to normal by Monday :encouragement:
 
How's it looking in Cheltenham Nick ?
 
We had a sprinkling of snow yesterday and snow is pretty deep underfoot. All the buses and trains into Cheltenham have been cancelled so still pretty bad.
Forecast for next couple of days is for the temperature to slowly rise above freezing so hopefully the big melt should start.
 
I live in Surrey and was under 6inches off snow this morning (I'm a bloke so that 6 inches could be a bit less) but 9 hours later you wouldn't know it..

I would not be taking evens on soft ground if it stays pretty dry this week..
 
Mapparently temps starting to rise tomorrow across the country. Just Cheltenham will do ��
 
Temperature was above zero most of the day yesterday here in Cheltenham. Snow is starting to turn to slush so should be all gone on few days. Clerk of the course said yesterday that the going will be soft for first day.
 
For what it's worth I don't mind soft ground as long as it's natural soft ground.
When clerks are forced to water it's impossible getting an even spread across the entire course, I walked it one year after a very dry spell and there were soft patches and good to firm patches, and where you get false ground it becomes dangerous.
So soft ground from natural irrigation will be fine...
 
Interesting update from Simon Claisse on Luck on Sunday. Currently soft, good to soft in places but with the further rain and snow drift effect, we may be looking at heavy in the going next weeeknd. Apparently 1cm of snow is the equivalent of 1mm of rain. Some of the fences have drifts of over a metre hence the importance to get them shifted!
 
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