Windsor attracts bumper 171 entries with jump racing set to make a return to the Berkshire track on Sunday

The team behind the return of jump racing at Windsor are encouraged by the level of support for the track's historic fixture on Sunday.

Demand has been high for the Thames-side course's first jumps meeting in almost two decades, with a total of 171 entries made on Monday for the seven-race card.

Trainers Nicky Henderson, Paul Nicholls and Dan Skelton have made multiple entries across a fixture made up of four hurdle races and three chases and headlined by two Class 3 contests worth £22,000.

Owned by Arena Racing Company (Arc), Windsor staged meetings under both codes until 1998 when a decision was made to drop jumping, although the track did host some of Ascot's jumps fixtures while the royal racecourse was redeveloped in 2004 and 2005.

Sunday is the first of three jumps meetings this season, with the track hosting days one and three of the Berkshire Winter Million on January 17 and 19.

Charlie Moore, Arc's head of group racing, said: "The level of support has been fantastic and it's been great hearing trainers planning for the Berkshire Winter Million meeting. 

"Sunday has been a long time in the making and to see 30 entries in the opening novice hurdle and 38 in the maiden hurdle is encouraging." 

A newly configured jumps course has been formulated, differing from the figure-of-eight layout on the Flat, with a continuous left-handed circuit measuring a mile and a half.

Following last month's gallops morning, slight alterations have been made to the track following feedback from jockeys such as Nico de Boinville and James Bowen.

"Everybody was very happy with the course and on the feedback from the jockeys, we've agreed to race on common bends," said Moore. "Everyone will go round the top bend off the winning post and the bottom bend before they come back past the marina.

"We've moved the chasers over to the left-hand side of the course as they come out of the bottom bend to give them a better line of approach to the water jump, before they swing right-handed to the three fences in the straight. 

"The hurdlers will go on the right-hand side because they've only got two hurdles in the straight."

The ground at Windsor was described as soft, good to soft in places on Monday with a settled forecast throughout the week and one of the track's biggest crowds of the year is expected for the landmark day.

"It's looking encouraging commercially, for the atmosphere and most importantly for all the work Charlie Rees [clerk of the course] and his team at Windsor have done," said Moore. 

"There were many doubters that this was a good idea, but we're making it happen and want it to be a success."

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