Mixed forecasts at Sandown and Aintree but no dramatic going changes anticipated ahead of big weekend races

Sandown's going in the lead-up to the Grade 1 Betfair Tingle Creek Chase (3.00) on Saturday is not expected to deteriorate with little rain expected at the track.

The going is currently good, good to soft in places on the chase course and good to soft, soft in places on the hurdles track for the meeting which begins on Friday.

Clerk of the course Andrew Cooper said: "I don't think there's a lot of rain around between now and Thursday. There are some showers around this afternoon in the south but they're fairly light and on Wednesday too. 

"On Thursday we're back to a series of fronts coming across the country from the west, but detail isn't clear. We could also expect some evening rain on Friday into Saturday. The forecast is still quite variable, somewhere suggested 8mm on Friday into Saturday and it will open it up a bit, but it will cope with that well.

"The chase course is a mix of good to soft and good and a lot of the back straight is just good ground, I wouldn't call any of it any slower than that. I wouldn't have thought the ground would be any worse than soft, I'm not seeing volumes of rain that would take it that far."

The outlook is similar at Aintree, which will stage the William Hill Half A Mill Becher Handicap Chase (2.40) on Saturday.

Clerk of the course Sulekha Varma is waiting for more certainty in the forecast and said: "It's good to soft, soft on the Mildmay and hurdle course and soft, good to soft on the Grand National course. We had 8.2mm of rain yesterday and we're looking fairly dry for the next few days. 

"There is the possibility of some rain Thursday night into Friday and possibly on Saturday as well, but there's low confidence in that forecast at the moment so we're just waiting to see how it develops. It will probably be a variation of what we've got on Saturday, but we'll keep our eye on how much rain materialises at the end of the week."

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