After a Champion Hurdle that had to be seen to believed, there was another surprise at Cheltenham on Wednesday morning, with snow falling.
An increasingly wintry scene emerged at Prestbury Park, where the day two feature is the Queen Mother Champion Chase at 4.00pm.
Thankfully by 8.30am the snow had turned to sleet before gradually stopping with temperatures forecast to rise to 7C by the time racing begins at 1.20pm, with a fascinating clash between The New Lion and Final Demand in the Turners Novices’ Hurdle.
Clerk of the course Jon Pullin told ITV Racing: “We were forecast wintry showers and I suppose you could say this is a wintry shower, but it should in the next hour turn more sleety and then disappear.
“If the forecast is correct, there are no concerns that it should clear fairly quickly within the next two or three hours.”
Frost covers were used overnight and Pullin added: “They are in the process of taking them off now.
“It was very precautionary last night, as we were forecast a slight frost. It did dip down briefly to a minus two temperature, so we took some precautions on the take-offs and landings, just to make sure we’d be comfortable this morning.
“That did its job and they are taking them off now.
“Today, daytime temperature should be around seven degrees, potentially another little bit of frost tonight, but Thursday to Friday is looking quite cold again now, so we’ll see where we go, but it should be dry from here on in.”
