- This topic has 8 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 2 months ago by
.
- Posts
What are peoples thoughts on the likely going on the first day of this years Festival? Will we get the good to soft that seems to be the prferred call? Or are we looking more and more likely to be soft, with the talk of a high water table and the ground already saturated?
It’s obviously a major consideration in an ante-post punt and some of the ‘mud larks’ prices will come tumbling down nearer the time if it looks certain to be soft, so maybe some value at current prices, e.g. Tidal Bay if it comes up soft woudl have a massive chance in the Gold Cup and is currently available at 18/1.
There must be every chance seeing how bad the weather has been recently, but if we do get a few dryer days at the end of February/start of March the ground can really dry up. I believe that happened last year, the week before the festival the ground was soft but dried up a lot over those seven days with the slightly warmer weather.
There must be every chance seeing how bad the weather has been recently, but if we do get a few dryer days at the end of February/start of March the ground can really dry up. I believe that happened last year, the week before the festival the ground was soft but dried up a lot over those seven days with the slightly warmer weather.
It’s getting unlikely Phil to be honest, albeit that Cheltenham dries pretty rapidly. The water table is so high at the moment that any extra rain has nowhere to go. It would take a good few weeks of dry weather to calm that situation down. But one never knows.
In the words of that great linguist GW Bush, I think you may be
‘misremembering’
last year. Jan-March were bone dry and the course was watering fully three weeks before the meeting.
One of the more incredible things about 2012 as the second-wettest year ever is that the first three months were setting records for
lack
of rainfall. It’s quite amusing to google ‘drought’ and see all the dire warnings from early April!
Mike
The Met Office are now tentatively forecasting a prolonged dry period for the rest of February and into March here in the Midlands. If that is the case then a good-to-soft Festival should be on the cards.
I should warn that these are the same people that famously forecast a ‘barbecue summer’ ahead of to the soaking and freezing summer of 2009. They then abandoned such long-range forecasts on the grounds that they may be ‘inaccurate’…
Mike
Should be dry towards the end of the month, will likely end up the usual good to soft, soft in places.
Before this season "form" on soft/heavy was seen as "unreliable" because it was not "the norm’". ie Will form work out on heavy ground? Right now (and probably Cheltenham) we are bound to get "shocks" because horses are running on good ground for the first time this season. So the question is "will form work out on good?
It’s been great this season, rarely bothering to allowing for different surfaces. Mostly just having in mind testing conditions. However, am needing to look back a long way to find form on good going and speed being more important.
Value Is EverythingYes, i had to check my eyesight after reading that headline
" Claisse could water Cheltenham with dry spells forecast "
You have got to be kidding me. What’s the problem with Good ground ?
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.