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Precautionary inspection will be done Cheltenham tomorrow morning, ahead of the scheduled seven-race Paddy Power Gold Cup card.
strong winds and continuous rain Storm Claudia has spoiled the track during the two-day meeting, with conditions essentially getting worse after Friday race,
With further rain forecast, officials will check the Prestbury Park turf at 7.30am, ahead of the planned second afternoon of action.
“There has been 12mm of rain throughout the day, which increased to 7mm overnight and as we were racing this afternoon we have opened up the track,” clerk of the course John Pullin told Racing TV.
“We still have more rain to come, possibly until midnight and we could see some heavy rain over the next few hours. It makes sense to look forward to the morning after we open.
“The forecast is saying it should be dry by 1pm and we know once this track gets a little window without rain the water will start draining and hopefully that will be the case.
“It’s precautionary, we’ve raced today and we’ve had that dry window. I hope we’ll be OK for tomorrow. We’ll do everything we can to make a decision as quickly as possible.”
Navan, due to the staging of the Fortrea Chase and the reappearance of the Marine National with it, will also be subject to inspection at the same time due to a Status Yellow rain warning from Met Éireann.
Clerk of the course Paddy Graffin said: “Since our ground update at 7.30 this morning, a further 6mm of rain has fallen in Navan.
“The ground currently remains soft to heavy, however, due to the Status Yellow rain warning from Met Éireann for County Meath, which runs until the early hours of tomorrow morning, we will carry out a precautionary inspection at 7.30am prior to racing.
“This is a precautionary measure due to the forecast but the track is currently suitable for racing and the latest update from Met Éireann shows we could see around 10-15mm of rain in the area.”