Unsettled outlook at Cheltenham with Thursday expected to be wettest day of the week

There remains an unsettled outlook at Cheltenham heading into the weekend with wintry showers remaining in the forecast and officials expecting 5-10mm of rain on Thursday.

Despite snow in other areas of Gloucestershire, only rain has hit the track in the last couple of days, with 3mm falling late on Monday and 2mm in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Temperatures may drop below freezing overnight but are expected to rise heading into the weekend. The going remains good to soft, good in places with no further watering planned unless necessary after this week.

Cheltenham’s clerk of the course Jon Pullin said late on Tuesday morning: “There was snow up on the top of Cleeve Hill this morning but nothing on the track and all we’ve had is a little rain since Monday afternoon.

“The outlook remains unsettled for the next few days with a mixture of wintry showers still forecast, although the expected frost for the next night or two is certainly not as bad as was initially forecast.

“Temperatures are set to rise over the weekend and reach double digits but we could get some more rain before then. Thursday looks to be the day where we could see the most rain – forecasts are varying but we could see 5-10mm.”

Some light showers are forecast across the four days of next week's big meeting that gets under way on Tuesday.

Pullin said: “It should be double digits at the beginning of next week. It may get a little colder on the Wednesday but temperatures jump back up for the final two days. We may get some showers through the four days but there is nothing of significant volume in the forecast.”

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