The track at Cheltenham was snow-free and raceable on Wednesday after avoiding the winter dusting that affected other parts of the country.
Sleet and rain fell at the Cotswolds course and the weather forecast is sufficiently unsettled to rule out any further watering between now and the start of the Cheltenham Festival.
Clerk of the course Jon Pullin said: “A lot of places saw varying amounts of snow but we avoided that. We have had drizzle and sleet showers throughout the day but nothing of huge volume.”
Pullin said the outlook remained unsettled for the rest of the week with temperatures set to drop during the night, with more rain and sleet forecast, particularly on Thursday and Monday, but set to rise to double digits from next week.
Groundstaff had been watering the track up to Sunday to keep maintain the going at good to soft, good in places, on the Old course where the meeting begins on Tuesday.
“I wouldn’t envisage us needing to irrigate ahead of Tuesday,” said Pullin. “It should be a lot easier on the grounds team, who have done a fantastic job, with the rain coming naturally.”
Elsewhere the meeting at Catterick was abandoned on Wednesday while the fixtures on Thursday at Carlisle, Southwell and Wincanton face morning inspections before they can go ahead.
Constitution Hill headed the 12 entries for the Unibet Champion Hurdle, a race which still contained former winners Honeysuckle and Epatante, who both feature in the Close Brothers’ Mares’ Hurdle, the latter one of two Nicky Henderson supplementary entries with stablemate Theatre Glory.
