As you were at Cheltenham as Festival moves to within touching distance

Conditions remained unchanged at Cheltenham on Saturday as only a little rain has been forecast ahead of the four-day Festival that starts on Tuesday.The question of watering has not yet come up, with clerk of the course Simon Claisse at this stage looking mainly towards the beginning of the meeting."I'm leaving the old and new courses as good to soft, and the cross-country course is still good to soft, good in places," said clerk of the course Simon Claisse."The outlook remains mostly dry, although we might get a little light rain."Watering is not in our current thinking."We are only looking to the beginning of the week."In contrast, bookmakers are fearing the worst on the last two days of the biggest jumps meeting in the calendar."We are bracing ourselves for a bloodbath on Thursday and Friday," said Ladbrokes head of racing PR Nicola McGeady."The worst result for us would be Defi Du Seuil in the Triumph on the Friday and Death Duty is the Irish banker of the week (in the Albert Bartlett)."In the Gold Cup,Cue Card has been the most-backed horse and Djakadam has been attracting the hot money. "Native River we think is going to be quite weak in the market because it doesn't look as though he's going to get the ground he wants, but if rain does come we would expect it to shorten up a bit."