Cyrname given two Sandown entries but participation hinges on ground

Paul Nicholls has left the door open for Ascot Chase winner Cyrname to take on Altior in Saturday's Grade 1 bet365 Celebration Chase at Sandown, but stressed a final decision on the seven-year-old's participation will depend on there being enough ease in the Sandown ground.

The 178-rated chaser – the highest rated horse in Britain this season – has been given entries in the 1m7½f Celebration Chase and the 2m6½f Grade 2 bet365 Oaksey Chase, both of which have been reopened, after missing possible engagements at Cheltenham and Aintree.

"He's been entered in both the Celebration Chase and the Oaksey Chase," Nicholls said on Monday. "He's definitely a possible but nothing is set in stone at the moment.

"There are different forecasts going around at the moment, some say they could get up to 15 mm and have a wet day on Saturday, others just say showers. It's just a case of waiting at the moment, and then we'll look and see."

Sandown clerk of the course Andrew Cooper is hopeful of producing ground no quicker than good for Saturday's jump racing finale after applying more than 100mm of water across the track in April.

After an almost rain-free month the need to water has been exacerbated by the unseasonably warm spell over Easter, although showers are forecast to arrive on Wednesday.

Cooper said: "Given where we are with the forecast overall, we're hopeful of producing at the very least good ground on the jumps course for Saturday. We've been watering it regularly for about three weeks now. We've put around 5mm per day on the track. We last had any significant rain on April 6, so we've been watering for most of April.

"We've been doing enough to just about keep it as good ground in jumping terms and we'll continue watering through the course of this week as necessary to maintain that."

Sandown clerk of the course Andrew Cooper

With the dry spell set to break at the Esher course on Wednesday, Cooper remains confident that the card – which features two other Graded contests including the bet365 Gold Cup and has more than £500,000 of prize-money on offer – will not be compromised by ground conditions.

He added: "The last few days have been warm, dry days but the forecast look set to change on Wednesday, with possible showers and cooler weather arriving from the south.

"Thursday, Friday and Saturday also have the potential to be quite unsettled. However, the details of what those showers may amount too is pretty unclear at this stage."

It is a big week at Sandown, with the course also hosting a high-profile Flat card on Friday headlined by the Group 2 bet365 Mile and Cooper added: "At the moment the Flat course is just about good to firm, having dried over the weekend. The plan is to put around 5mm on the track today and take stock of the situation after that.

What's on this week

"If we didn't do that we would have firm ground everywhere by Tuesday and then we'd be hoping for rain. We just need to halt the drying process before the rain arrives later this week."

Hurdle races are usually run on the Flat track but for this meeting the course has been re-configured, with the only shared section coming in the home straight.

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