FEARS over the Cheltenham racetrack are growing ahead of the Festival's start in less than a fortnight.
And those worries are further increased by the real possibility of SNOW at Prestbury Park during the four days.
Clerk of the course Jon Pullin admitted this week that the ground on some parts of the course is currently 'a long way from where we'd like it to be'.
The issue stems from poor grass growth since the last meeting back at the end of January.
Measures have been put in place after a cold February left temperatures too low for soil to allow grass to grow on the New Course.
Pullin has had to cover parts of the track with fleece sheets as a result, in a bid to help the issue.
Bookmakers William Hill have slashed the odds of snow falling at any point of the four days to Evens.
That follows a long-range forecast from the Met Office which suggests a significant drop in temperatures from this weekend with sleet and snow a possibility next week.
Despite being behind where they'd hope to be, Pullin is in no doubt that the track will be safe come race time.
He said: "We're a long way from where we'd like to be. Conditions haven't been conducive for recovery from the January fixtures, which has made the difference.
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"It'll be perfectly safe for racing but not the level of cover you'd like.
"We've done three cycles of 15mm on all three courses. That's to help the grass grow and to get ahead of the game in case we have to back off because of the cold spell.
"We've got the fleeces down from the crossing up to the winning line and that's to try to keep the soil temperature up. It hasn't been high enough for the grass to grow and we've put the fleeces down to try to stimulate growth.
"We had some down for a week, but we pulled them up for a liquid feed and water. Now they’ve gone back down. We're trying everything we can to get the grass covering back."
Pullin and his team had to cancel a Saturday fixture in December and were almost at risk of losing the January race day as well, which fortunately survived a late inspection.
He's not anticipating significant challenges due to snow but is prepared should it deteriorate.
He added: "The forecast we're looking at is not suggesting a Beast from the East. It'll get colder with some wintry showers but at this stage there is nothing to indicate anything too horrific.
"We'll get frosts from the weekend. It looks to be getting warmer the following weekend, but we'll keep an eye on those forecasts."
On the drop of odds for snow to fall at any stage of the Festival, William Hill spokesperson, Lee Phelps, said: “It’s looking more and more likely that we’ll have a rerun of 2018’s conditions in the snow with this forecast!
“The Cheltenham Festival is just around the corner and with wintery conditions seemingly on the way, we make it just even-money that snow falls during any of the four days of the biggest meeting of the racing calendar.”
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