Cheltenham team open to more watering

Simon Claisse is prepared to water the track at Cheltenham during the meeting due to the lack of recent rain.

Forecasts earlier in the week suggested the Cotswolds would be hit by prolonged spells of rain over the weekend, but that has now been changed to the odd shower, forcing Claisse and his team to turn on the taps.

“We’ve been hit really hard in the last three winters with very cold weather and we haven’t had a lot of rain in the last 10 or 12 days,” Claisse told Channel 4 Racing.

“At the beginning of last week we were forecast rain this weekend but it is diminishing all the time, it started off at 12-15 millimetres but it’s now down to two so we took the decision to start watering on Thursday.

“Tuesday and Wednesday we are on the Old Course and the ground is good, good to soft in places, just where we’d like to see it. We put four-five millimetres on.

“We are expecting a little bit of light rain and if we got that again on Monday the Champion Hurdle course would be perfect, if it doesn’t we’d be prepared to water that course again tomorrow and on Monday morning.

“The Thursday and Friday course is good, good to firm in places and we are watering that today and tomorrow morning and seven or eight millimetres will be going on that which will make it good with a little bit of good to soft.

“If some rain comes through the week that will make it spot on for Friday, if not we’ll be into overnight watering as in 2009 and 2005.”