Windsor and Ascot in good shape for Winter Million festival

After a challenging spell for racecourses, conditions look to be kinder ahead of the inaugural Berkshire Winter Million meeting.

The fixtures offer over £1.2million in prize money across three days hosted jointly by Windsor, who have recently resumed their Jumps programme, and nearby track Ascot.

Windsor will stage the first day of the meeting on Friday, with Ascot holding its Clarence House Chase card on Saturday before the action returns back to Windsor on Sunday.

After a cold snap that depleted the National Hunt calendar and saw even all-weather tracks being forced to abandon, temperatures have risen across the country and the forecast now looks less daunting in the lead-up to Friday.

“It’s a beautiful, sunny day today, temperatures have reached a high of nine degrees, which is warmer than the forecast,” said Charlie Rees, clerk of the course at Windsor.

“We’re due to get the same conditions tomorrow with sunny spells, then temperatures are dropping a bit on Friday.

“We could get highs of seven throughout racing but it looks like it will be about four degrees at daybreak on Saturday morning and then Saturday looks to be a cold day.

“We’re just monitoring the forecast to see if we need to put any frost covers down at close of play on Friday, just to protect ourselves through Saturday.

“Then we look to be about two degrees at daybreak on Sunday morning, with highs of about seven degrees. The going is soft at the moment, it’s completely thawed out now and we’ll update the report in the morning for declarations on Friday.”

Windsor will benefit from the addition of the Grade Two Hampton Novices’ Chase to their Sunday card after Warwick lost their Classic Chase meeting, with entries across the two days of racing at the Thameside track already looking competitive.

Rees added: “It’s really encouraging, it’s great to see the trainers that have supported the meeting. There’s a very high calibre of horses entered at the moment, so let’s hope they all turn up and we have a fantastic two days of racing – complemented by a huge day at Ascot.”

Ascot’s track is also faring well ahead of the weekend, with clerk of the course Chris Stickels saying: “The going is good to soft at the minute, we may get an early bit of mist on Wednesday but otherwise it’s milder than last week.

“We’ve got sunny spells throughout the week but it is dry. We’re forecast a fairly chilly day on Saturday and there might be a frost overnight from Friday to Saturday morning, but at the moment it doesn’t indicate anything too severe.

“It’s considerably milder than last week and it looks like it’s going to stay fine and dry. Assuming that forecast is correct, then it’s very possible that the ground will be good in some places.”

The Grade One Clarence House Chase is set to be the scene of a much-anticipated clash between Jonbon and Energumene on Saturday, with the rest of the card well supported by both British and Irish trainers.

“We’re delighted, they’re very strong entries,” Stickels continued.

“We’re very pleased that Jonbon and Energumene are both involved at this stage in the Clarence House Chase and there’s a good list of entries throughout the other races.

“There are also some really interesting further runners from Ireland, potentially, so we’re very happy with how it’s turning out at this stage.”