Friday 3 July 2015 11:23, UK
Officials at Sandown appear increasingly likely to turn on the taps ahead of Saturday's Coral-Eclipse.
The going at the Esher circuit is described as good to firm, good in places ahead of a seven-race card this afternoon and there is only a small chance of any rain falling ahead of the track's flagship meeting of the Flat season this weekend.
Clerk of the course Andrew Cooper will wait until later this afternoon before making a final decision on whether to water, but admits he will likely do so with conditions drying out all the time.
"It's a beautiful morning, as expected, and I think we're going to have another beautiful morning and beautiful day tomorrow," Cooper told At The Races.
"Both days are looking like 26 or 27 degree days, with bright sunshine. There is really only a 10 per cent chance of a shower overnight.
"The last couple of days have been pretty trying. We had an extremely hot day on Wednesday and then we had widespread showers forecast for Thursday morning, which didn't materialise at all. In a sense that set us back a bit from where we thought we would be.
"The track is generally good to firm and on both the sprint and round courses there are bits and pieces of good.
"In terms of watering, if we're still getting a forecast suggesting only a 10 per cent risk of showers at 5pm tonight, I'm sure we will crack on and water again.
"We've been putting on around three millimetres, which is what we reckon we lose on a day like today.
"We'll take stock after racing and see what the forecast is. You can't take these things for granted when the weather is in a volatile situation."
