Cheltenham Festival going 2016

T

Truncheon

Conditional
Joined
Jan 29, 2016
Messages
679
High pressure moving in this weekend and set to stay dry all week

Good ground on Tuesday? Cheltenham dries out very quickly
 
You know who's big hose will be getting all hard at the thought of drying ground.
 
Amazing the difference a foggy morning makes to keeping the moisture in the ground this time of year.
2014 tuesday morning was nice and sunny and the course bone dry; Wed it was foggy and with the dew/watering the course was drenched.
i hope they got enough rain today to prevent any need for watering.
 
We've had plenty overnight Edgt, in fact it's still mullering it down now.
Be great to have a bit of decent ground au naturelle.
 
Heavy rain overnight, flash floods around Cheltenham and the rest of Gloucestershire however Simon Claisse on local radio predicts ground will be perfect come Tuesday with warmer temperatures over the weekend and no more substantial rainfall until after the Festival.
 
Perfect; the higher temperatures will encourage grass growth, the best way to absorb water is to metabolise it.
Going to the races through the fields from The Plough pub last year i was amazed how strong the grass growth was on the far side under the shade of the trees, hedges compared to the home straight.

God is surely an NH fan !

Grassy can double his Vautour bet with confidence now !
 
Last edited:
Historical Going for the first day of festival

measured in lengths per mile + or -

scale
G/F........................ +13 to +21
Good [GF places].... +6 to +12
Good..................... -8 to +6
Good [GS places].... -9 to -19
G/S........................ -20 to -30
Soft....................... -31 to -43
Soft [Hvy places].... -44 to -54
Heavy.................... -55 to -69
Very Heavy............. -70 to -85
Ext Heavy............... -86 to -100
Bottomless............. -100 to -130

2015 -6
2014 +3
2013 -25
2012 -9
2011 -9
2010 -13
2009 -31
2008 -42
2007 -16
2006 -10
2005 -10
2004 -17
2003 -21
2002 -12
2000 +2
1999 -23
1998 -8

in 17 years its been Good ground 23% of the time...Good[g/s pl] 47%....G/S 18% ....Soft 12%
 
Last edited:
Ofically soft again this morning after 24mm of rain overnight. Dry forecast will up to Tuesday will probably see that Good/Soft with maybe soft in places. Home straight and coming down the hill usually the slowest to dry.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
edgt said:
Perfect; the higher temperatures will encourage grass growth, the best way to absorb water is to metabolise it.
Going to the races through the fields from The Plough pub last year i was amazed how strong the grass growth was on the far side under the shade of the trees, hedges compared to the home straight.

God is surely an NH fan !

Grassy can double his Vautour bet with confidence now !
Click to expand...

Im buying new shades!
 
EC1 said:
Historical Going for the first day of festival

measured in lengths per mile + or -

scale
G/F........................ +13 to +21
Good [GF places].... +6 to +12
Good..................... -8 to +6
Good [GS places].... -9 to -19
G/S........................ -20 to -30
Soft....................... -31 to -43
Soft [Hvy places].... -44 to -54
Heavy.................... -55 to -69
Very Heavy............. -70 to -85
Ext Heavy............... -86 to -100
Bottomless............. -100 to -130

2015 -6
2014 +3
2013 -25
2012 -9
2011 -9
2010 -13
2009 -31
2008 -42
2007 -16
2006 -10
2005 -10
2004 -17
2003 -21
2002 -12
2000 +2
1999 -23
1998 -8

in 17 years its been Good ground 23% of the time...Good[g/s pl] 47%....G/S 18% ....Soft 12%
Click to expand...

Anyone recall which year it was the official going was on the soft side but they were breaking records right left and centre?
 
Desert Orchid said:
Anyone recall which year it was the official going was on the soft side but they were breaking records right left and centre?
Click to expand...

the breaking of records at cheltenham isn't that significant re fast ground...its a myth based on how records are set on fast ground at every other track....because all the fastest races run are in March at Cheltenham...so a course record can be set there on Good ground getting gf places..whereas if the festival was held in July..you would get faster records as the ground..if not watered would have significantly faster record times,

its akin to..sorry to mention the AW..but take a course like Southwell where you very rarely get decent horses running..so the records there are held by 0-70/80 hosses..lets say they held the winter derby there...and it was truly run..the record would be broke..not because the track was faster..but because faster horses raced there

at cheltenham..its double that scenario...the only really good races that are run on the fastest ground there are run on generally good-good/soft ground in March..so over a period of time a record time is created on that surface.....then one year they actually race on just slightly top side of good ground and every record is broken,,most punters then assume its really fast ground..but forget all the previous records are set a slower surface than any other course..that really fast ground they assume is actually just really good ground
 
Last edited:
I take all that on board, EC1, but I don't think it was the case in the year I'm thinking of. There was something about how the grass had knitted and while the going stick was producing soft ground readings, hence the official going, fast ground horses were winning (as well as soft ground ones) and the theory was that the grass cover allied to a degree of sponginess underneath, was creating a 'springy' surface and was propelling horses forwards without their having to work hard at it.

There was a big article about it in the RP at the time.
 
i think it was 2000 if i remember correctly....everyone was convinced the ground was rock hard...the times don't bear it out though..+2 is perfect good ground
 
Yes and we have had years when they insisted it was still good despite raining all day as for the 2004 Gold Cup
 
From Tony Paley in the Guardian. Maybe 9-2 soft with Skybet is worth a cpl of ££'s...

11am Cheltenham expect to open Festival on softish ground

Tony Paley: Cheltenham clerk of the course Simon Claisse expects the ground to be on the soft side of good with a mixture of soft and good-to-soft areas at the start of the four-day Festival on Tuesday.
The going was still being described as soft on Thursday morning but the forecast for every day up to Gold Cup day a week on Friday is for dry weather, with temperatures set to get into double figures by the weekend.
“We had about half the amount of rainfall they experienced at Stratford on Wednesday,” Claisse told At The Races.
“We’ve come through that deluge in pretty good shape. We would have raced [on Wednesday] with a few fences being taken out. The ground has taken it well. Having got to good to soft, good in places we are now back to soft.
“I can’t find a forecast here at the moment that has got any rain in it at all between now and Friday week. They say on Gold Cup we might get a couple of millimetres, but it’s predominantly dry with the temperatures beginning to get up into double figures.
“The temperatures are creeping up, but they are only getting up slowly. We might get into double figures at the weekend. My hunch would be we’ll commence the meeting on a mixture of good to soft and soft, but quite which one is the predominate going, I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess at this stage.”
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Sounds like it will officially either be GS, Soft in places or Soft, GS in places. 9-2 was big enough to tempt me but was offered a max of £4....
 
Interesting there looking at Turftrax, they report all 3 courses still to be soft all round as of 3pm yesterday.

Going stick reads 5.7 old course & 5.4 x country & New.

According to turftrax archives Cheltenham this New Years Day was Heavy - soft in places with a reading of 5.4 on the going stick. Very testing that day, I remember Smad Place coming back in without any white left on his front half!!
56539eec4b3acf9d1701c16c17704427.jpg
fed066bccedab11d7df7b31ab8d4da0c.jpg


I reckon it's worse off than they're letting on at the course and we'll be seeing a lot of soft in the description come Tuesday, more so by the jockeys after the first. Around 7-7.5 is usually proper good/soft ground there historically.

It was strange that Claisse said they could've raced after that rain fell but only after omitting up to 5 fences because of standing water.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
Back
Top