Cheltenham’s prestigious November meeting is bracing for the impact of Storm Claudia, with Gloucestershire having been issued an amber weather warning ahead of the three-day event.
Prestbury Park could see more than 30mm of rain from Thursday evening through Friday, a deluge that threatens to dampen both racegoers and the festive spirit on the opening day of the course’s biggest fixture outside of the Festival.
Clerk of the course, Jon Pullin, anticipates the overnight rainfall will likely see the meeting commence on soft ground, a significant shift from its current good to soft, good in places description.
"I think given the forecast, and if that’s anything near correct and we get the significant volume we could get pre-racing, I would be fairly certain we will be starting on soft ground," Pullin stated on Thursday.
He added: "I’m out on the track in glorious sunshine and it’s a beautiful afternoon and the track is in great shape. We would be good to soft, good in places, but we are bracing ourselves for the storm that is going to move in from late tonight and through the early hours and all through tomorrow and tomorrow night as well.
“Gloucestershire now has an amber weather warning for rain, so we are anticipating significant rain both before racing and during racing tomorrow."
The knock-on effect of Friday’s downpour could signal testing conditions for Saturday’s Paddy Power Gold Cup and Sunday’s Unibet Greatwood Hurdle cards.
Pullin is set to maintain a continuous assessment throughout Friday afternoon in anticipation of further ground deterioration.
He continued: "The rain blows through sort of after Friday night and we should be dry from the early hours of Saturday and then dry for pretty much the rest of the weekend but we are just waiting to see what we do get tomorrow.
“We would just have to see throughout the day where we go from there, but I see us starting on soft. At the moment we are perfectly raceable and we foresee no issues looking ahead at this stage but we’ll just have to monitor conditions on an almost hour-by-hour basis.
“It is an amber weather warning for rain, there are significant volumes forecast, so it’ll just be a case of watching and seeing how we go."
