Chepstow to be inspected on Christmas Eve
Chepstow’s Thursday card is in serious danger following substantial rainfall last week. The Monmouthshire course is scheduled to host the Grade 3, Coral Welsh National (Handicap Chase) – one of the high-profile fixtures in the racing calendar.
Including the big event, Chepstow is due to host several meetings on the day. The card includes: Coral Mobile Three Clicks To Bet Beginners´ Chase, Coral.co.uk Best Price Guaranteed On Horse Racing Handicap Hurdle, Coral Mobile Text "Mobile" To 82211 Handicap
Chase, Coral.co.uk Future Champions Finale Juvenile Hurdle, Download Coral Mobile From The App Store Maiden Hurdle, and Coral Backing "Macmillan Cancer Support" Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race.
The officials are hoping for improvement in track conditions after heavy showers in the last week. The track is waterlogged in places at the moment, and more rainfall is forecasted on the next couple of days. So, the course surely needs some luck to be ready
for the big meeting.
Clerk of the course Keith Ottesen said on Sunday morning: "In just over 24 hours we have had 45 millimetres, which takes us up to 135mm in nine days - that is nearly five and a half inches. We are up to 1500mm for the year and we had 849mm for the whole
of 2011.”
"It stopped raining at around 3am this morning and quite a bit of the surface water we had has now gone, so there has been improvement. However, there is quite high confidence that another band of rain is coming in tonight, bringing something between 10
and 15 millimetres.”
The clerk further described that the weather on Sunday night will be very crucial, as the officials will decide when to inspect the track after seeing what happens at night. He also explained that there is rain forecast on the first two days of this week,
and things are likely to remain so on Wednesday.
The officials are also working on plan-B, if the conditions don’t improve ahead of Thursday’s encounters. There are possibilities that the races will be switched to the card of January 5th. But until the final call, the participants have their
finger crossed.
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