Jon Pullin, clerk of the course at Cheltenham, expects the Festival to start on good-to-soft ground despite significant rain in the area.
Speaking to Nick Luck on Racing TV's Road To Cheltenham on Monday morning while walking the course, Pullin revealed that he was happy with the condition of both the New and Old Courses heading into the track's biggest week of the year.
"It's proper good-to-soft ground, it's not going to be quick, and this would be at the bottom end of good-to-soft," he said.
"We had temperatures yesterday of 16 and a half degrees and we probably anticipated a little bit more dryback yesterday than we actually got but we're in good shape; lovely jumping ground really."
The warm spell that saw record temperatures in the UK over the weekend was short-lived with the mercury reverting to more typical levels for early March which should mean that there is limited evaporation for the remainder of the week.
Pullin explained: "The New Course potentially won't dry too much now with the forecast we've got of these daytime temperatures between 6 and 8 degrees so it's not going to move a lot, so there may still be some soft ground there but in the main, as it is currently [good-to-soft].
"The forecast for today is very much as it is - overcast, cloudy - we might get a little shower later on but they are saying half a mill to a mill.
"I'm aware that there is some fairly significant rain around us but the forecast for us isn't showing that."
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