Cheltenham 2020 / 2021

Thyme Hill taken a walk in the market amid rumours this won't be the last announcement of a horse being ruled out today
 
I think PP have underestimated the strenght/calibre of favs at this years festival - I know they cant all win etc etc but this year in particualr there are more solid favs than I can recall. PP have it 3/1 for 10 or more winning favs which I think is huge, they are 13/2 11 or more, 14/1 12 or more and 33/1 13 or more. Real value there IMO.

All taken down with the exception of 13 winning Favs which has been cut to 16/1 :whistle:
 
I agree with that but the rain - and lots of it - was forecast so why were they watering earlier in the week??
It's been plenty dry with a strong wind in the main. So it's drying out very fast. The rain has been intermittent and was only ever going to be quantities that the track could more than handle.

Without that bit of watering, I suspect they feared it would get too firm as next week goes on. I don't believe we'll see too much, if any, yellow on that map next week. Will be good to soft edging towards good in places as the week progresses.
 
There was 7mm of rain last night. And that only put a few spots on the course to soft. It's still good to soft in the main right now.

There's only another 8mm due over the next 6 days. That's nothing really. And the wind speeds on Sunday and Monday are forecasted 9 m/s which is equivalent to 30+ kmph. It'll dry out very fast.

There's no danger of it being too soft.
 


Simon Claisse, the clerk of the course at Cheltenham, said that the going at the track could be good in places by Monday afternoon before a week when little or no rain is expected. As yet, though, there are no plans to water the New Course, which will stage the final two days of the Festival meeting, although its condition will be monitored closely in the early part of the week.

Claisse has been in charge of the track at Cheltenham since 2000 but has never seen as much rain fall at the course in as short a space of time as in January and February this year.

As a result it is difficult to predict how quickly it will dry but the going has now been good-to-soft on most of the track for nearly a week and Claisse does not expect any sudden change before the first afternoon of the Festival meeting on Tuesday.
 
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