Watering continues at Ascot

Ascot will continue watering the track today ahead of the start of the Royal meeting on Tuesday.

Clerk of the course Nick Cheyne said: “We remain good to firm, we’re still watering and we will be watering throughout Sunday.

“We are putting on about 10 millimetres to maintain the ground about where it is at the moment and we just hope it will hold from there.”

The forecast for the five-day meeting is largely good and although it may become unsettled towards the end of the week, Cheyne is not expecting too much rain.

“It looks like it’s going to be dry and warm for the first few days so we will obviously be monitoring the ground situation,” he said.

“We are forecast very little rain and it looks like being dry for the week.”

Final declarations were made today for the four Group races on the first of five days racing and Cheyne is delighted with the turnout.

“We have some very good fields on the opening day and it looks very, very competitive,” he added.