Good ground likeliest starting point for York's Dante meeting with rain forecast on Tuesday
York expects the ground to ride close to good this week after fears eased of heavy rainfall before its season-opening Dante meeting.
The going was described officially as good, good to firm in places on Sunday, three days before a fixture which features major trials for the Betfred Derby and Oaks among five Group races and three Listed contests.
"Like everywhere, the spring has been slow but it's come to hand in the last couple of weeks and we've had just 3.4mm of rain in May," said raceday clerk of the course Anthea Leigh.
"The settled spell of high pressure is about to leave us, but the rain coming from the south west isn't now due to come until around 7am on Tuesday. It looks as though that will clear through us by lunchtime and the best guess appears to be 6mm-8mm of rain.
"If we got that I'd expect we'd be somewhere near good all round. It might just drop us to the slow side because the water table has been very high, but we look like having quite nice spring weather through the meeting."
Outlining the forecast for the rest of the week, Leigh said: "There's a 40 per cent chance of catching a light shower on Wednesday, with sunny intervals. Then it will be dry and a bit cloudier on Thursday, with possibly the odd shower on Friday.
"It hinges on the front we get on Tuesday but, looking at the forecast, we should be close to good ground."
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