Cheltenham racecourse have been left praying to the heavens over the next few days in order to get their January Trials meeting on with heavy amounts of rain expected to fall from now until the intended off which could see the seven race card abandoned.
Cheltenham clerk of the course Simon Claisse currently believes that the track have a 50-50 chance of being on after Thursday evening threw out more rain, but actually less than what was expected.
The Prestbury Park based track will have to survive an inspection on Friday afternoon for the meeting to get the go ahead, but with it currently raining in the Cotswolds at the moment, it really leaves the meeting going ahead on a knife edge.
On Friday morning, the track was hit with 10mm more of rain which is 2mm less than what was intended and Claisse is expecting a further 10mm on Friday evening which could be the crucial for the track being raceable.
The grounds staff are constantly monitoring conditions and are doing everything to get the meeting on, bit now it is left to the rain gods and how much will fall on the track from now up until the off.
(Credit Racing Post) Claisse said: "We've had 7mm of rain overnight and that's less than expected but it's pouring right now. We're 50-50 I'd say at this stage, it's still raining so that's why we've planned the inspection until after the forecast rain."
If the meeting does not go ahead The Jockey Club have already confirmed that races such as Grade 2 Cotswold Chase and Cleeve Hurdle will both be raced at other tracks, with the possibility of other races also being rescheduled elsewhere.
If Cheltenham do get the go ahead on Saturday afternoon it will see two fences being taken out with the first down the hill and the third-last being removed.