/ Editor / 08 March 2007 /

'Soft' is the trading favourite to be the official going when the Cheltenham Festival gets underway on Tuesday.

The Betfair market sees Soft as the market leader at 1.82 ahead of Good to Soft on 2.74.

The market shifted following a statement by clerk of the course Simon Claisse on Thursday.

"The old course may well come up soft on Tuesday," said Claisse.

"Thursday is glorious. We have a clear blue sky, sunshine and not a cloud in sight.

"The outlook now is a lot better than it was on Monday. It looked as though there would be enough rain to keep us in the heavy, soft category.

"On Monday it looked like being wet for 10 days, then the forecast changed on Tuesday and Wednesday and presumably it could change again.

"The forecast rainfall in total between now and Tuesday is somewhere between 12 and 14 millimetres. It just really depends on what we get.

"The forecast is pretty decent for the big week itself, but everything seems to fluctuate every couple of days."

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