Cheltenham happy with conditions ahead of new season

Officials at Cheltenham will not put any more water on the track ahead of their seasonal curtain-raiser this weekend.

Fields at the two-day Showcase meeting look set to hold up well, with decent ground forecast and a possible clash between Gordon Elliott’s recent Grade Three winner Chanceawetmorning and 2025 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle third Derryhassen Paddy in Saturday’s William Hill Price Boosts “Chasing Excellence” Novices’ Chase holding plenty of interest.

Clerk of the course Jon Pullin said ground staff at Prestbury Park have worked tirelessly to provide safe jumping ground after a long summer of drought, while the forecast of rain between now and the weekend means he is happy to let nature take its course ahead of racing on Friday.

“We had 8mm of rain Sunday into Monday and expect some further rain,” said Pullin. “As a result, and in light of the uncertain forecast for the end of this week, we’ve stopped watering.

“We’re ‘good’ ground all over currently but we’ll have to wait and see how much rainfall we get on Thursday and Friday before I can say with any real confidence what we’ll be when the tapes go up on Friday.”

Cheltenham have taken the early decision to cancel the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase at the November meeting, with the course in the centre of the track unlikely to soften sufficiently.

However, Pullin reported that the drainage work done on the main course at the tail end of last season, which caused the final three meetings in the spring to be abandoned, to have settled in well.

He said: “We’re really pleased with how the track has responded to the significant drainage works that we completed over the summer months. Our decision to cancel the last three racedays of last season in order to maximise both the time to carry out the work and for the ground to recover was certainly the right one.”

Chief executive Guy Lavender is looking forward to the new season greatly, with the team having made significant investment on site.

He said: “The whole team have been working incredibly hard over the summer months to get everything right both on and off the track and we can’t wait for the season to get under way on Friday.

“The focus has once again been on investment – investing in the significant and necessary upgrade of the drainage system and also continuing to invest in the customer experience.

“Last season our racegoers were extremely complimentary about the improvements we made to a number of bars and restaurants and the increased food and covered seating options across the site.

“We’ve listened to and analysed the feedback we received throughout the 2025-26 season and invested millions of pounds in upgrading more of these areas and now every bar in the grandstand has been refurbished, which will help improve the overall experience in so many ways, from the look and feel to queues and being able to move around the racecourse.”