Clerk of the course Simon Claisse is confident this week's two-day fixture at Cheltenham will beat the cold snap after officials began covering the entire track.National Hunt racing has been hit hard by the weather during the past week but officials at Cheltenham are already taking evasive action.Claisse hopes the application of the covers will save the turf ahead of racing on Friday and Saturday."On the basis of our forecast and the covers being down I'm thoroughly optimistic for the weekend ah

Clerk of the course Simon Claisse is confident this week's two-day fixture at Cheltenham will beat the cold snap after officials began covering the entire track.

National Hunt racing has been hit hard by the weather during the past week but officials at Cheltenham are already taking evasive action.

Claisse hopes the application of the covers will save the turf ahead of racing on Friday and Saturday.

"On the basis of our forecast and the covers being down I'm thoroughly optimistic for the weekend ahead," Claisse said.

"It got down to minus 4C overnight which delayed the deployment of the covers.

"The beneficial thing from our point of view is that our soil temperature is still above 4C, whereas in January when we deployed the covers before it's only been some where between 2C-3C.

"Looking at the forecast for the week it's due to be minus 4C, with daytime temperatures of 1C-2C degrees, possibly getting a little bit warmer by the end of the week."

Nigel Twiston-Davis has more reason than most to hope that Cheltenham defeats the big freeze as the trainer is poised to unleash Little Josh in the Vote AP Gold Cup on Saturday.

The tough eight-year-old is ante-post favourite for the Grade Three handicap chase after winning the Paddy Power Gold Cup last month.

"He's in great form and we haven't missed a day's work with him," said Twiston-Davies.

"We're ready, as long as the track's ready - but I'm a little bit worried about the forecast."

The Vote AP Gold Cup has been renamed to encourage the public to vote for champion jumps jockey Tony "AP" McCoy as the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.