Ascot keeps weather eye in taking two-track approach to Champions Day :-: the Guardian
• Officials expect to use usual track but rain could force switch if going is heavy
• At Punchestown, Petit Mouchoir makes winning start as steeplechaser
Ascot officials are expected to decide on Thursday morning that its usual Flat-racing track should be used for Champions Day on Saturday, while acknowledging a distinct possibility that the going there could end up soft by raceday. The alternative would be to use the “inner” track, which is used normally as the jumps track, but that seems a remote possibility at this stage, officials having committed to making a decision by about 9am on Thursday, before trainers have to declare their final entries.
“I’ve just walked the outer course and it’s good, good to soft in places,” Chris Stickels, Ascot’s clerk of the course, said on Wednesday evening. “We gave ourselves the option of using the inner track but that’s really only supposed to be used if the outer is heavy or looks like being heavy.”
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