Weather forecast

The weather forecast for the next 48 hours, hour by hour: the sky expected, and the state of the turf that goes with it.

Five skies, five turfs

Weather forecast	Turf
Sunny	dry
Clearing	light
Cloudy	soft
Rainy	sticky
Thundery	heavy

The two always go together: the sky is the pleasant way of saying the turf, and it is the turf that counts in a race.

What the turf changes

Every horse goes more slowly on heavy turf than on dry turf. But not to the same extent: a supple horse copes far better with the deterioration of the turf than a stiff one.

Heavy turf therefore reshuffles the cards. It brings a supple horse closer to one that is faster than it is, and it is one of the rare occasions when an outsider becomes worth backing. For punters, that is first-rate information which many overlook: see Betting.

These are genuine forecasts

And it should be taken at its word: they are approximate, and the further ahead you look the less reliable they are. The forecast for two hours from now is worth more than the one for tomorrow evening.

The certain information is elsewhere: a race's card shows the real turf of its start time, but only within the hour before it. See A race's card.

The division of labour is therefore clear: you plan with these forecasts, you decide with the card.

What to use it for

If you are entering a horse, choose the time of the race by looking here. A horse with little suppleness that is spared the rain gains a few lengths without doing anything more.

If you are a racecourse manager, the timing of your races or of your calendars also falls on a kind of weather. A prestige event on heavy turf gives a less representative finish — it is up to you to decide whether that suits you.

If you are testing a horse, the test is run on the turf of the hour you launch it — the test window shows it to you, in fact. A test on heavy turf does not measure the same thing as a test on dry turf. Training, for its part, is indifferent to the weather.

And one common-sense remark: over forty-eight hours, there is always a decent hour. Nothing obliges you to race in a thunderstorm.