Ascot to water overnight before day two of the royal meeting

Clerk of the course Chris Stickels was hoping to replace the moisture that was lost from the ground during day one of Royal Ascot as he confirmed his intention to water the track overnight. 

Having watered on Monday, the ground was officially good to firm on Tuesday, with St James's Palace Stakes winner Sean Levey describing it as "lovely", and Stickels is hoping to replicate those conditions on day two. 

"We're going to water," said Stickels on Tuesday evening. "We'll put five millimetres on the straight course and four millimetres on the round course. The intention is to maintain the conditions as they are and all we're doing is putting back the moisture which we've lost."

Temperatures could topple 20C on Wednesday and Stickels said it remains a largely dry picture for the rest of the week.

"The forecast for Wednesday is fine and dry and, on the whole, it's looking that way for the week," Stickels added. "There's an outside chance of a thunderstorm on Friday but less so now for Thursday and we'll play it day by day from here."

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