Cheltenham's loss looks like being Aintree's gain as some of racing's leading jumps trainers yesterday confirmed that they were targeting their horses at the Martell Grand National meeting.
Due to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease the Cheltenham Festival has been postponed until April 17th, 18th and 19th - 10 days after Aintree.
And officials at Cheltenham are currently drawing up contingency plans in the event of the Festival being called off which could see some of the championship races shared between Aintree and Sandown's Whitbread meeting at the end of next month.
Cheltenham currently lies just a mile outside an infected area and any further spread of the disease could threaten the rearranged fixture. The course's managing director Edward Gillespie said yesterday: "So far there is no further drama to report today. Contingency plans are being worked on. They will be developed and finalised over the next few days so they will be in place if needed. But there will be no announcement until they are needed."
Noel Chance is set to run Flagship Uberalles at Aintree. The seven-year-old is a leading fancy for the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Festival and the Lambourn trainer said: "I don't know what is going to happen. It is very difficult to make plans at the moment but we are looking at Aintree.
"With the situation as it is you can't just wait, you have to take what you can. He'll be entered for the 120-grand race (the Mumm Melling Chase) at Aintree.
"He could run at Cheltenham as well as Aintree. It just depends on how hard a race he has."
Paul Nicholls intends running his Tote Cheltenham Gold Cup hope See More Business and other members of his Cheltenham team at Aintree.
"See More is in great order. We've kept him ticking over," Nicholls said yesterday after saddling Moving Earth to win at Fontwell Park.
"It's great to see the horses running well. It shows the horses are fit. We would just like to get them on the track.
"I'm actually going to run them all at Liverpool. I'm hoping they have one or two of the races at Aintree with their values improved and made into Grade Ones and possibly have four other races at Sandown. That would be a great idea because Cheltenham is looking dodgy.
"There's going to come a time when everybody needs to know whether it's going to go ahead so I'm aiming to have most of mine ready for Aintree."
Newcastle called off another meeting due to the foot-and-mouth outbreak yesterday. Its Flat fixture next Tuesday has suffered the same fate as the track's last two scheduled jumps cards. Today's scheduled jumps meeting at Huntingdon was called off yesterday due to waterlogging.
And officials at Kempton are hoping that forecasts of substantial rain prove wide of the mark over the coming days as Saturday's meeting starts to come under threat. The three races scheduled for the sprint course were abandoned yesterday when the straight track was found to be waterlogged and three new events have been drawn up to complete a six-race card.
