Sandy Thomson is running out of options to qualify Seeyouatmidnight for the Randox Health Grand National.
The trainer had his plans thwarted by the weather for a third time last weekend and will even consider the effects of commuter traffic before deciding where to run the horse.
Seeyouatmidnight has yet to run this season and, under a race condition brought in for this year’s National, must start in a chase before April 9 if he is to make the line-up at Aintree on April 14.
Thomson had the horse ready to run in the Premier Chase at Kelso earlier this month, only for the meeting to be abandoned twice, and was again left frustrated on Sunday when the fixture at Carlisle was also cancelled.
The trainer decided against running Seeyouatmidnight in the Ultima Handicap Chase at Cheltenham last week because of the heavy ground.
However, with a horse rated 149, there are not many alternatives available and Thomson needs to factor in a reasonable recovery period ahead of the National.
The British Horseracing Authority is considering staging a replacement jumping fixture in the north to make up for lost meetings but this is unlikely to include a race which Seeyouatmidnight could contest.
Thomson has entered for a two and a half-mile chase at Newbury on Saturday and a three-mile race at Ascot the following day and admits that logistics will form part of his decision. “There’s the travelling to take into account,” he said. “If he runs at Ascot he’ll be travelling back on the Monday morning and do you want to get him stuck on the M25 in traffic?
“Two and a half or three miles wouldn’t worry me. I think it was Gordon Richards who said that if he had a target in mind for a horse he didn’t mind giving them a blow-out over a shorter trip.”
One horse who will not be running in the National is Definitly Red, the topweight, who was scratched from the race yesterday. His trainer, Brian Ellison, instead plans to run him in the Betway Bowl two days earlier.
The Flat turf season begins this week and ante-post favourites Lord Glitters and Addeybb are among 73 confirmations for the 32Red Lincoln at Doncaster on Saturday.
However, there will be loftier ambitions than handicaps held for a new arrival at Juddmonte Farms which has announced the birth of a full-sister to Frankel.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here