Temperatures set to go below freezing this week as Newbury prepares for its Coral Gold Cup meeting

Newbury is keeping a close eye on the forecast ahead of its two-day Coral Gold Cup meeting, with temperatures expected to drop as low as -3C ahead of Saturday’s £250,000 handicap chase.

Temperatures are set to go below freezing on Thursday evening ahead of the opening day, headlined by the Grade 2 Coral Long Distance Hurdle, and on Friday evening before the Coral Gold Cup, the jumps season highlight at the Berkshire track.

“We’re good to soft, soft in places on the hurdle track and good to soft on the chase,” clerk of the course George Hill said on Monday morning. “We had four millimetres of rain overnight and we could get another shower this afternoon.

“The forecasts are a bit variable. There are a couple of different scenarios but it looks like it’s definitely going to be colder into the weekend. There’ll be some wintry showers, a couple of frosts and stuff like that.”

Hill will oversee his first Coral Gold Cup after replacing Keith Ottesen in September and he added on the varying weather forecasts: “The latest models tomorrow morning might give us a bit more of an indication of what is going to happen. 

“At the moment, the European model and American model are slightly different. Hopefully, tomorrow morning the models will align a bit more and we’ll have a better picture of what’s happening.

“It was wet and wild overnight and then it’s milder today with a few more showers this afternoon. After that it’s fairly dry, but Thursday is a big question mark, we could get rain, sleet or wintry showers so we’ll see how that plays out.”

Southwell's card on Tuesday is subject to a 7.30am raceday inspection following 16mm of rain on Monday. The going is described as heavy, soft in place, on Monday with the track in a raceable condtion.  

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