King staisfied with Cheltenham going

Alan King donned his wellington boots on Sunday morning to walk the track at Cheltenham and was pleased with the ground conditions.

King, who has Ryanair Chase favourite Voy Por Ustedes among his team for this week’s Festival, inspected the course before heading to Warwick to saddle two runners.

“It would be terrific if we could race today as the ground is perfect.” said King.

“The track is in great order and is exactly what Simon (Claisse) has been calling it (good to soft, good in places), but it wouldn’t take a lot to push it the other way.”

Around 10 millimetres of rain is forecast ahead of Tuesday’s opening day, but King feels any precipitation that does fall will not detract from Katchit’s bid to retain his Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle crown.

“The rain won’t affect Katchit as he has won on heavy before and it might even slow some of the others down,” he added.