Lee Mottershead inspects the inner Flat track with Ascot's clerk of the course

Horses and jockeys face two novelties at Ascot on Saturday, when three of the Qipco British Champions Day races will take place on a round track that has never been used for Flat racing and the card's remaining three contest are staged on a straight course heavier than clerk of the course Chris Stickels has ever known it.

Many of those living not a million miles from Ascot will have been woken in the early hours of Friday morning by the sound of torrential rain. A total of 5.5 millimetres fell on the racecourse, meaning those parts that were deemed unraceable earlier in the week are deemed unraceable once again.

Fortunately, a decision was taken on Wednesday to switch the Qipco Champion Stakes, British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes and Long Distance Cup to the hurdles track.

Walking it on Friday morning, however, what we have always known as the hurdles track looked like a proper Flat track, thanks to work carried out on Tuesday, when new railing was installed to divide the chase and hurdles courses, in effect creating a brand new stage for top-class Flat racing.

The ground on that new round course stage was described on Friday as good to soft, soft in places, those places covering around three furlongs in the Swinley Bottom area. The straight course, on which the stalls will be positioned against the far rail for the first time in recent years, remains heavy. A few small showers could fall through the rest of Friday but Saturday is expected to be largely dry.

"This is as soft as I've known it," said Stickels during his morning inspection of the straight course, on which he does not expect a draw bias to emerge.

"I was hoping we would see some soft ground on the straight course today but because of the overnight rain that clearly hasn't happened. You are certainly going to need horses who enjoy really testing ground on Saturday."

The runners and riders in the Qipco Champion Stakes will face this view from the startCredit: Lee Mottershead

Despite all the rain the straight course has remained raceable all week, unlike the normal round course, the trouble point being Swinley Bottom, where Stickels' stick went in an awfully long way on Friday.

"The ground on our normal Flat course is really soft at Swinley Bottom and once opened up it will be almost waterlogged," he said.

"It would not be safe enough to run horses on, plus we have worn ground from previous meetings. Some of those places will have false ground. That is not what we want. If we were due to race on the normal Flat track today I would be inspecting and I think we would be abandoned. For me, it's not safe ground, particularly as we have showers forecast."

Stickels is confident riders will not want to steer wide during the round course races, given watering of the traditional Flat track will have impacted the outside of the hurdles circuit. He is also confident there should be no problems with the bends, two of which – those entering the back straight and at Swinley Bottom – are tighter than runners would normally face. Interestingly, that does not apply to the turn for home, which will incorporate some of the turf from the track destined to be used by Altior and Cyrname next month.

Ascot clerk of the course Chris Stickels stands where runners in three of the Champions Day races will enter what is normally the home straight of the track's hurdles course.Credit: Lee Mottershead

Stickels explained: "In order for it to become a nice bend from the back straight into the home straight the rail alignment starts on what would normally be the hurdles course, comes on to the chase course and then moves back on to the hurdles course.

"The radius of the bend is 140 metres. The radius for the normal Flat bend is 138 metres, so the bend on Saturday is actually less sharp than the one we would normally use."

Stickels hopes that will reassure the connections of Champions Day stars who will be competing at the end of a difficult week in which the Ascot clerk believes the right moves have been made.

"We wanted to make the right decisions without being too hasty but also without being indecisive," he said. "We wanted to be comfortable with our decisions and we are."

Get ahead of the game with Get Your Eye In - exclusive Saturday preview content on racingpost.com and the Racing Post mobile app from 2pm on Friday