The Cheltenham Festival is expected to open on Tuesday with the ground on the Old Course riding soft. The showers forecast during the first day’s card are likely to maintain some ease in the surface before a frosty start on Wednesday.
The New Course, which stages the action on Thursday and Friday, is soft, good-to-soft in places, with between 5mm and 10mm of rain expected before the Gold Cup card on the final afternoon.
“[The ground] has taken the rain we’ve had recently really well,” said Jon Pullin, Cheltenham’s clerk of the course. “We had 4mm on the Old Course, so we’re soft ground for Tuesday and Wednesday at the moment.
“It will dry back a little bit today, but we do have some showers moving in later on, hopefully nothing too significant volume-wise, but that may well negate any improvement that we get during the day.
“There’s the chance of showers early tomorrow morning but the rest of the day should be mainly dry. The temperature drops sharply overnight, possibly as low as minus 2C, but it will only be a one-night frost. Against that is the fact we’ll have raced on Tuesday and opened it up a little bit, but we are not too concerned.”
The star turns on the first day are expected to include Constitution Hill, the hot favourite for the Champion Hurdle, and Honeysuckle, winner of the race for the past two years, who will make her final start in the Mares’ Hurdle with Rachael Blackmore, as ever, holding the reins. Epatante, the 2020 Champion Hurdle winner, and Marie’s Rock, who took the Mares’ Hurdle 12 months ago, are among her opponents.
“I wish it wasn’t raining quite so much, but we’re looking forward to it,” said Peter Molony, racing manager for Honeysuckle’s owner, Kenny Alexander. “She seems very happy to be back at Cheltenham – she loves the place. Henry [de Bromhead, her trainer] always has her at her peak at Cheltenham, he’s a master at that, and I have every confidence he’ll have done the same this year.
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“It’s a phenomenal race. Ruby Walsh said last week he could imagine five or six mares coming round the bend together and so could I. It’s as deep a race as there is all week, but hopefully Honeysuckle will be there coming round the home bend and from there may the best mare win and she comes home safely, that’s the main thing.”