BBC report heavy going at Cheltenham

This evening BBC Ceefax reports the going at Cheltenham on both hurdle and chase tracks on the old and new courses as heavy, soft in places.

With a couple of abandonments already announced this week and a number of other courses reporting waterlogging in places, perhaps we should consider taking the 14/1 Hills were offering, according to yesterday's Racing Post, about the first day of the Festival being washed out.

Cheltenham Festival going update

Richard Johnson, writing in The Times a month or so ago, commented that this season had been one of the wettest he could remember and you would hardly say it's dried out in the interim. With the Cheltenham Festival just two weeks away, the state of the ground is set to come under close scrutiny.

The clerk of the course described the going yesterday as soft, heavy in places. The weather forecast predicts heavy rain through the middle of this week with the possibility of high pressure building next week. Cheltenham drains pretty quickly but at this stage the general feeling is that the going will be on the testing side when the Festival starts.

Jonjo O'Neill warned he would not risk his Black Jack Ketchum, currently favourite for The World Hurdle, on bad ground. That looks like an invitation to back one (or more) of the other runners ante post, for if Black Jack Ketchum doesn't run, prices on all the other runners will be considerably shorter than they are at present.

We'll just have to keep an eye on the weather...