Last Updated: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:25
Cheltenham Festival officials say that public safety is their major concern, with storms currently battering the south of England.
The 2008 festival is set to get underway on Tuesday and the forecast does not look good for the next 48 hours, with gale force winds and heavy rain expected to hit Gloucestershire through Monday and into Tuesday.
Clerk of the course Simon Claisse admits Cheltenham has missed the worst of weather so far, but officials are taking precautions to ensure the spectators safety this week.
Claisse said: "With temporary structures for 15,000 people, we just want to make sure those are all safe.
"We are making sure that anything that doesn't need to be set up and might blow away gets left until Tuesday."
Speaking about the forecast, he added: "It hasn't been so bad here. We had wins up to 50mph last night and they could have been 60 or 70mph so I think we got away quite lightly.
"There are Met Office warnings out for a gale starting Monday and lasting through to early on Tuesday. There may be wind speeds up to 50 or 60mph and possibly somewhere between half an inch and an inch of rain.
"I've just changed the going on the Old Course which will be used on Tuesday and Wednesday to Good-Good to Soft in places, the Cross Country course remains Good and the New Course for Thursday and Friday is Good to Soft-Good in places."
Tuesday's feature race is the Champion Hurdle at 15:15, with Friday seeing the Gold Cup showdown between Kauto Star and Denman.