Clerk of the course Jon Pullin says it is likely the 2023 Cheltenham Festival will start with soft ground on Tuesday afternoon.
Speaking on ITV4’s The Opening Show on Saturday morning Pullin says the amount of rain that falls on the track on Sunday evening will determine how the ground rides on day one.
“We’re soft ground at the moment,” he said. “We’re looking at soft ground for the start of the Festival on Tuesday.
“If we’re at the top end (of the forecast) there could be some heavy in the description, but it depends on the amount of rain we get tomorrow (Sunday) night.
“We had a little bit of frost overnight, we dipped down to -3.5C briefly, temperatures got back up to 0C at 4am. We have a dry day forecast, we could get the odd shower later in the day but nothing too significant.
“Then we go into a dry day tomorrow, temperatures 11 and 12 degrees. There is a band of rain moving in Sunday evening and into Monday. Volume-wise we could be looking at somewhere between 5 and 10 millimetres and it looks a blustery day on Monday.
“Tuesday is looking drier and it’s unsettled for the rest of the week as well.
“The indications are there could be another band of rain on Wednesday evening, we’re certain to get something Wednesday evening and into Thursday.”
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