No less than four Tote Cheltenham Gold Cup entries are set to go into battle at Wetherby tomorrow in the £14,000 Monkton Chase.
Tim Easterby's Simply Dashing heads the weights on 12st, followed by fellow blue riband candidates Strong Promise (11st 8lb), Macgeorge (11-7) and Tullymurry Toff (10-9).
Completing the seven-strong field are Niki Dee (10-10), Owen Brennan's veteran course specialist Strath Royal (10-4) and last year's Great Yorkshire Chase hero Major Bell (10-1).
However wet weather has robbed the 'A1' track of seeing a live candidate for Royal & SunAlliance Chase honours in the shape of Lord Noelie.
With rain falling in West Yorkshire today connections decided the ground would be unsuitable for the seven-year-old.
The gelding also missed a valuable event at Kempton over the Christmas period because of soft ground.
There are alternatives for him coming up at Ascot on Saturday and next week at Doncaster and Huntingdon.
"They've been telling us there would be quite a bit of rain at Wetherby so we decided to give tomorrow's race a miss," said trainer Henrietta Knight.
"I'm not too concerned that he's been off for a while as he's a horse that goes well fresh but I would like to get a run into him.
"It's something like five times we've had him ready to run and then had to change our minds.
"But if the ground is all right he will run at either Ascot, Doncaster or Huntingdon."
The going at Wetherby was officially good at 2pm this afternoon but a spokesman for the course conceded that it was likely to change.
"It is raining now and has been for most of the day," he said.
"I would think it might be good to soft by the end of the afternoon but the forecast is for dry weather tonight and tomorrow so I would be surprised if it became any worse than that."
