Rain leaves Cheltenham heavy, and sinks hopes of Nicholls and Henderson

Watering overnight preceded persistent downpour.

There was mild controversy at Cheltenham on Wednesday after officials watered the track on Tuesday evening only for rain to fall all day turning the ground heavy.

Such was the volume of rain which hit the Prestbury Park track throughout the afternoon, the ground would likely have turned heavy even without the five millimetres which clerk of the course John Pullin put on certain areas of the track artificially.

The day began with the ground described as good, good to soft in places before moving to good to soft, good in places and then good to soft, then soft all round before being changed to heavy.

Having seen his Grade One winner Stage Star struggle in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, champion trainer Paul Nicholls took out pre-race favourite Bravemansgame from the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase.

Racegoers took whatever shelter they could
Racegoers took whatever shelter they could (Mike Egerton/PA)

When asked if he could understand why Pullin had chosen to water Nicholls told ITV Racing: “No, not at all.

“From Sunday, on the forecast, it was going to be a very wet day today. Why water when you’ve got a wet forecast?

“It’s a hard job, I couldn’t want to be a clerk of the course but it was always going to be a wet day.”

Dan Skelton withdrew Nube Negra from the Queen Mother Champion Chase in which odds-on favourite Shishkin was pulled up, with Henderson solely blaming the ground.

A mud-splattered Paul Townend returns on Energumene
A mud-splattered Paul Townend returns on Energumene (Tim Goode/PA)

“You never know until you run them what they can cope with, but I could honestly tell going to the first fence he wasn’t happy because I knew where he wanted to line up, but he couldn’t get there,” said Henderson.

“I can understand why they watered. I know the boys (jockeys) and everybody were saying it was getting quick last night and we don’t want fast ground here.

“I understand their predicament. He (Pullin) has got loads of forecasts that said this wasn’t going to happen.

“I’m not blaming them. It was going to be soft anyway with this rain. I walked round on Sunday and it would have been soft after this rain with or without watering.”

A racegoer tries to shelter from the rain
A racegoer tries to shelter from the rain (Mike Egerton/PA)

The closing Weatherbys Champion Bumper was delayed by 15 minutes as Pullin and his ground staff inspected areas of the track that had become waterlogged when the hurdles were removed.

The race was eventually run, with the field avoiding the worst areas. Willie Mullins’ Facile Vega was a ready winner.

The action moves to the New course for Thursday and Friday, where the ground is described as soft and a dry day is forecast.

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