Festival going

its that time of year to start watching the weather forecasts closely.with the festival coming slightly earlier this year, and the mild and wet weather locally. I'm predicting soft going at best on day 1 . With lots of trainers and pundits stating that good spring ground will help their horses/selections what happens if it comes up soft or worse
Discuss ?

 

I am glad you have started a thread on this as I was wondering myself how the ground will be on Tuesday week. I hope it isn't soft, as I feel that going hinders the good horses and brings the rags into play. Even good horses that have proven soft ground form can have issues, as different areas of the track run faster or slower than others. So a smart jockey move can help a lesser horses chances.

Looking at the first days main race the CH, the soft will hinder the first 3 in the betting, especially The New One who has had to work hard to beat rags this season on the soft.

Jezki will probably still run a good race, but not quite as good as last year.

The one horse who will benefit is Hurricane Fly, he is a proven mudlark and I can see him reversing last years CH form with Jezki if it's soft or worse.

Faugheen will not be suited by it either, but I feel he is so good that he will still be able to win in the mud, however it won't be as impressive as it would be if the ground was good.

 

It looks as though the weather is going to brighten up with 2 rain-less days prior to the opening day and rain-less on the opening day. Unless that changes I doubt it will be soft.

 

Do you think 2 days will be enough Ron? I'm no ground expert, but I wouldn't have thought 2 days, unless really sunny would do to much.

 

Good to soft.

 

My uncle lives down the road and often walks the dogs by the track and he says we need a least two weeks of dry weather and strong winds to dry the place out.have a look out the window and tell me what you see , it's pissing down

 

The drainage is so good that they usually end up watering the course, that shouldn't be required this year, perfect good to soft ground!

 

Well it shouldn't be getting any softer and if, as Harchi says, the course drains well is should be OK for most horses

 

Its guaranteed to be called good-soft on the first day, whether it is or not!

 

Timeform assess the going independently so it will be interesting to see how they compare.