Selective watering was carried out on Cheltenham’s Old Course on Monday after conditions changed from good to soft, good in places in the run-up to the festival, although current Racing Post modeling suggested punters should expect faster ground.

Conditions on the Old course, in use for the first two days of the competition, accelerated slightly after a dry Sunday, prompting the change to the current description on Monday morning and the decision to begin selective irrigation of the course (4-5mm).

Watering took place in the afternoon, after which race director Jon Pullin said at 4.30pm: “We’re still good to soft, good in places at the moment. We’ve just done some selective watering to maintain that, and we have a dry forecast ahead of the race.”

“We’ve watered a little bit in the last hour, so we’ll let it settle and take a look in the morning and see where we are at that time.”

The course of the New course remains good to mild, good in some places, and on Monday selective irrigation will be carried out “only in the good areas.”

Of the forecast for the rest of the week, Pullin said Monday morning: “It rains a little after the races Tuesday through Wednesday, then it’s dry through the day Wednesday and overnight into Thursday. It’s dry through much of the day Thursday with a band of rain moving through the afternoon and continuing overnight into Friday.”

The ground has also changed from good to soft, good in places (good to soft) on the cross-country course for Wednesday’s Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase.

GoingStick’s latest reading on the Old course is 6.2.

Analysis: Cheltenham could see unusually fast ground

For the past few weeks, and several months before, we’ve been keeping our own record of how GoingStick’s reported readings match its reported descriptions. These things must be consistent and fit some kind of linear relationship. Racing Post subscribers can reap the rewards of this model every day in The Edge, which assesses the terrain at every British turf meet along these lines.

In our model, a GoingStick reading of 6.2 at Cheltenham corresponds to ground that would be good, good to soft in places. That is, we think it could be a little faster than the official description provided on Monday.

It is not simply based on our maths to suggest that 6.2 is on the cusp of good ground at Cheltenham. This year’s New Year’s Day reading was 6.3 and was considered good ground. The last time the festival started so quickly, in 2022, when the reading was 6.3, two records were set.

The irrigation that will take place on Monday could change things. Barring that, we’re set for unusually fast terrain for the start of the 2026 Cheltenham Festival.

Keith Melrose, Betting Editor

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