Aintree expresses concern over quick ground on Mildmay course and prepares for 'challenge'

Aintree's clerk of the course Sulekha Varma admitted conditions on the Mildmay course were quicker than ideal ahead of the start of the Grand National meeting on Thursday and her team face a "challenge" to balance watering with an unsettled forecast.

The going was changed to good, good to firm in places on the Mildmay track before the arrival of a forecast band of rain on Sunday night. Aintree was expecting up to 15mm on Monday but the track has now been forecast just 1mm overnight and between two and four millimetres through Monday.

Further rain is expected on Tuesday and Wednesday, but with no clear consensus on quantity Varma and her team will decide on Monday how much to water the track before the start of the three-day meeting on Thursday. 

There are less concerns about the Grand National course, is described as good, but with some slightly softer areas.

Varma, speaking on Sunday, said: "We've now had some dry and pretty warm weather. We're expecting that to break tonight and into tomorrow. The slight difficulty we've got is that the rainfall on Monday is not, at the moment, looking like it will come in the volume we were expecting. 

"We're going to watch the forecast and make a decision on Monday as to whether to water or not. We've reached a point now where the ground on the Mildmay, both chase and hurdle, is not what we want to be racing on come Thursday. We just need to balance that forecast rain and come to a conclusion in the morning.

"It's a changeable forecast so we're trying not to jump the gun until we absolutely have to. On Tuesday night and Wednesday we potentially are going to get some more rain again, but the amount differs depending on which forecast you look at. 

"The absolute ideal for us is to start on Thursday on good to soft, or certainly the slow side of good. The challenge at the moment is balancing the forecast rain and irrigation, and trying not to overdo one which will then be affected by the other. It's not an easy call."

Between 3-4mm of water was put on the the National course on Friday night into Saturday, and more could be added if the rain does not arrive.

Discussing conditions for the National on Saturday, Varma said: "It's mostly good ground but it's still a bit softer just round by Becher's Brook down to the Canal Turn and Valentine's, around that area. The majority of it is good ground at the moment but if we need to water that again we can do. It's very easy with the pop-up irrigation."

The forecast for the three days of racing is a mix of sunny spells and scattered showers. Varma said the course was expecting strong attendances across the three days with National day already sold out and sales for the first two days "in-line" with last year. 

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for high winds on Tuesday and Wednesday for an area including Merseyside. 

Varma said: "There's some strong winds forecast but everybody onsite is aware of them. It's a case of planning as we have known this has been coming for a good few days. Everyone is prepared for it."

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