Cheltenham Festival turf in prime condition for meeting next month

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The immense new grandstand which will raise the capacity at Cheltenham to 70,000 will not be finished until next March but elsewhere here on Wednesday, the final preparations for the four-day Festival meeting which opens on 10 March were well under way. The connections of possible runners in the meeting’s 11 handicap events now know the burdens that their horses are likely to carry after the weights were published at a media event on Wednesday afternoon, while the simultaneous publication of the final two lists of entries - for the Champion Bumper and Foxhunters’ Chase - also means that the possible cast list for National Hunt’s showpiece meeting is now complete.

The Cheltenham turf is in prime condition for the meeting’s 27 races, having received less rain than many parts of the country in recent weeks, and Simon Claisse, Cheltenham’s clerk of the course, reported that the going is no worse than soft anywhere on the track.

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source Sport | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1JMVcYf