Cheltenham hit by snow – but racing expected to go ahead on Wednesday
Cheltenham chiefs expect racing to go ahead on Wednesday despite a surprise flurry of snow and temperatures of -2C ahead of the second day of the festival.
The course got a dusting of the white stuff early this morning, raising fears that the 65,000 racegoers expected to attend Prestbury Park could be in for disappointment.
But by around 8:30am the snow had turned to sleet and Cheltenham course clerk Jon Pullin said they expected a full programme, which includes the Queen Mother Champion Chase, to be unaffected.
“We were forecast wintry showers and I suppose you could say this is a wintry shower, but it should in the next hour turn more sleety and then disappear,” Pullin told ITV.
“If the forecast is correct, there are no concerns that it should clear fairly quickly within the next two or three hours.”
Cheltenham staff used frost covers to protect the course from sub-zero conditions overnight, which Pulling said had been a “very precautionary” measure.
He added: “We were forecast a slight frost. It did dip down briefly to a minus two temperature, so we took some precautions on the take-offs and landings, just to make sure we’d be comfortable this morning. That did its job.
“Today, daytime temperature should be around 7C. Potentially another little bit of frost tonight, but Thursday to Friday is looking quite cold again now, so we’ll see where we go, but it should be dry from here on in.”
Day two of the Cheltenham Festival is set to begin at 1.20pm with the Turners Novices’ Hurdle, which is billed as a showdown between The New Lion and Final Demand.
The Nicky Henderson-trained Jonbon is the favourite to win the feature race at 4pm but faces competition from Marine Nationale and Willie Mullins’ Energumene.
CityAM’s The Punter tipped two winners on day one, including 25-1 shot Golden Ace in the Champion Hurdle. Read the day two tips here.