Sandy Thomson is running out of options for his stable star Seeyouatmidnight.
The trainer has planned the horse’s season around the Randox Health Grand National at Aintree next month.
However, a race condition brought in for this year’s race stipulates that all horses must start in a steeplechase before April 9.
Seeyouatmidnight has yet to run this season and Thomson had him entered for Kelso tomorrow, until that meeting was abandoned on Wednesday, and the option of running at Doncaster this weekend also closed when that meeting was also lost to the weather.
The trainer is pinning his hopes on the Kelso fixture being rescheduled for a week on Sunday when Seeyouatmidnight would run in the Premier Chase.
“I’d be very hopeful that Kelso would be able to rearrange for the following Sunday, which they did two years ago,” he said. “Obviously I’m biased because I’m desperate to get a run into Midnight but, from a northern perspective, we cannot afford these fixtures.”
Other alternatives are not plentiful. The horse won his biggest race in the Dipper Chase at Cheltenham in 2016 and may line up for the Ultima Handicap Chase at the Festival meeting although Thomson admitted: “We obviously have to consider Cheltenham and he’ll be left in at the five-day stage. It wouldn’t be the ideal preparation taking him all the way there but the only other option is the veterans’ chase at Carlisle the next weekend.”
Seeyouatmidnight has not run since finishing second over hurdles at Kelso nearly a year ago.
He missed the Scottish Grand National with a suspensory ligament problem and has also undergone a wind operation.
"He never had an indication that he needed it,” Thomson said. “But he was just always a bit noisy on the gallops. He's by Midnight Legend and a lot of them have had [wind] ops so we took the opportunity to do it.
"We've known where we're going for six months and I'm very pleased with him. He's got his problems and we’ve been working around that with physios and back people."
There is prospect of no jump racing before Sunday at the earliest and Kim Bailey is hoping to get Charbel to Southwell today for his prep run ahead of the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase.
Charbel is one of three horses Bailey has declared for the jumpers'
bumpers card at the all-weather track, which was added to the fixture list because of the cold snap.
Charbel, who fell at the second-last when leading eventual winner Altior in the Arkle Trophy at last year's Festival, has just the three rivals if Bailey can get there.
"It's either that or take him for a racecourse gallop. We thought we'd go there as the grass will be not be much good for the next few days,"
Bailey said.
"We might not get there though if the forecast is correct. It was forecast to be bad on Thursday afternoon. Everything's absolutely spot-on at the moment with him ahead of Cheltenham."
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