Everyone knows Cheltenham drains very well and it is often the case that the Cheltenham Festival ground is on the firm side come March. Only a week before the Festival last year the ground contained heavy patches yet by Gold Cup day the ground was back on the firm side.

The last time the ground was officially heavy was almost 20 years ago (1989) so it seems for the near future mudlarks need not apply when it comes to the Festival. If you are backing a soft ground horse for the Festival then now is the time to start your rain dance.

After one of the wettest summers ever we have had one of the driest winters and it is going to take plenty of rain in the coming weeks to have anything softer than good to soft ground.

Where does that leave the punters? If the ground is genuinely good then it is time to back the speedier horses and the flat bred horses, who are used to firmer ground. If you are backing a soft ground horse for the Gold Cup then it is going to need to pour down the night before Gold Cup day and even that might not be enough.

So, the moral of the story, assume the ground will be good to soft at absolute worse and if the rain doesn’t come expect the softer ground horses to be very much outpaced.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Cheltenham Festival. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.