Frost covers have been put down on the Old Course at Cheltenham ahead of the opening two days of the Festival.
Last Updated: March 9, 2013 5:07pm
Frost covers have been put down on the Old Course at Cheltenham ahead of the opening two days of the Festival.
Overnight temperatures are forecast to dip below zero in the early hours of Monday and Tuesday and the vulnerable areas of the cross country course have also been covered.
The New Course, where Thursday and Friday's action takes place, will be covered on Sunday.
The going remains soft on all courses.
Trainer Paul Nicholls admitted that those looking for good ground, particularly on the first two days of the meeting, would be struggling.
"With the rain and the frost covers keeping some of the moisture in the ground, It's going to be properly soft and you'll need to be staying every yard and more to win," he said.
"Touch wood, my team are all in good nick. It's usually at this time of the year that things start to go wrong, but none of them are dead or dying.
"I worked 30 this morning, just to put the finishing touches to them."
