The Glenfarclas Chase, leg 8 of the Crystal Cup, will not form part of the Cheltenham Festival card after the race was abandoned due to waterlogging following an 8 am inspection today.

Cheltenham confirmed that the event will not be rescheduled with an unsettled forecast meaning conditions are unlikely to improve enough later in the week. Officials had considered deferring the race until Gold Cup day on Friday.

The cancellation means there are revised times for the six remaining races on the second day of the Festival, with the first race delayed 15 minutes to 1345.

The cancellation leaves a clutch of Grand National candidates without a prep run for the Aintree spectacular. The race has become a proving ground for Grand National contenders in recent years, notably Tiger Roll.

The cancellation also leaves the French in pole position to win the Crystal Cup awards with just two legs remaining, at Fontainebleau on March 29 and Lion d’Angers on May 8.

Cheltenham faces the unusual position of starting a festival on soft ground following a winter of very high rainfall. February was the wettest and warmest on record, with an above average volume of fixtures cancelled due to waterlogging.

That wet weather shows little sign of relenting, a trend that may impact upon the next leg of the Crystal Cup tomorrow. Following 6mm of rainfall overnight, which is a significant change from the 2mm-4mm initially forecast, and with a further 4mm-6mm forecast today (Tuesday 12^th March), there will now be an inspection on the Cross-Country course at 8am tomorrow (Wednesday 13^th March). The Cross-Country course is currently waterlogged in places.

In the unfortunate event that the Cross-Country course fails tomorrow’s inspection, Cheltenham is working alongside the BHA on a contingency plan for the Glenfarclas Cross-Country Chase to be run on Friday 15^th March, Gold Cup Day.

The Old and New Course have taken the rain well and the Going is now Soft, Heavy in Places.

Hip Hop Conti’s performance in the Grand Cross de Pau was underlined yesterday as runner-up Saint Godefroy ran out a 2 1/2l winner in the Grand Cross de Mont de Marsan, under champion rider Felix de Giles.

The €52,000 contest over 4,700m (2m 7f) took place at Pau in the absence of a serviceable track at Mont de Marsan.

Already a winner of no less than 8 cross country races at Pau alone, including the 2022 Grand Cross, over multiple distances, Saint Godefroy certainly knows his way around Pau’s impressive fences, and this race never really looked in doubt despite the best efforts of second-placed Iridia and third,  Riskman.

His Dragey – based trainer Patrice Quinton is France’s leading exponent of cross country racing, and a previous winner of the Crystal Cup award for leading trainer. He had been expected to assert his lead in this season’s Crystal Cup leaderboard with a Cheltenham runner in Wednesday’s Glenfarclas Cross Country, but this was withdrawn at the 6 day entry stage, leaving only British and Irish runners for the £75,000 (€87,000) contest.

Meantime, in a busy weekend for followers of the cross country discipline, a new candidate for senior honours emerged in the Prix Malicieuse over 4,900m (3m) at Durtal. Nine year old gelding Ever Forget Me demolished the 8 runner field with a comprehensive 12l victory, having been held up in rear till half way, when he took it up and gained distance with every stride. One has to hope trainer Eric Leray will push the gelding into higher class events henceforth.

A candidate for forthcoming Crystal Cup races emerged over the weekend when Hemevoici triumphed in the €52,000 Grand Cross de Lignières for trainer-rider partnership François Nicolle and Thomas Beaurain.

It was coffee and croissants rather than champagne for owners Jacques and Patrice Détré. The success of French racing relies upon its visibility to punters worldwide, forcing the race to take place at the ungodly racing hour of 9.40 in the morning.

But Beaurain was well awake for this important second leg of the  Trophée National de Cross over an extended 6,000m. Handy throughout behind leader Gatsby des Planches, he joined the leader at the 18th to up the pace. Gatsby des Planches dropped his hind legs in the water, the 24th, offering a chance to Hemevoici to assert. The testing conditions forced his own error at the penultimate obstacle, letting Gatsby des Planches’ rider, Quentin Defontaine, back in on the inner. Neck and neck until 100m from the line, the two made a gripping finish before Beaurain squeezed an extra effort to win by 1 1/2l.

Irish contenders make up half the entries for next month’s Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase, leg 8 of the Crystal Cup, as owners from the Emerald Isle continue to assert their authority on the Cheltenham Festival, and on this race in particular. Eight of the last 10 winners have been trained in Ireland, 5 of them from Gordon Elliott’s Cullentra powerhouse.

Elliott and Gigginstown Stud are well represented by Delta Work, winner in each of the past two runnings, and seeking to emulate Tiger Roll, winner of this race three times as well as 2 runner-up berths. Other Gigginstown entries include Conflated, winner of the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham in January, and Coko Beach, who warmed up for this in a cross country chase at Punchestown earlier in the month.

Conflated holds entries in the Ryanair Chase and Gold Cup and a the preferred option is most likely the former of these. Coko Beach is en route to the Grand National alongside Elliott’s other entry Galvin, owned by grocery wholesaler Ronnie Bartlett.

Henry de Bromhead has entered 2021 Gold Cup winner Minella Indo, whose sole victory this season to date was in a Grade III conditions chase at Punchestown in October, Delta Work behind him on that occasion. However, he shaped very well in Cheltenham’s December cross country – a handicap – when giving 20lbs (9kg) to the winner, Latenightpass. The third horse there, Fameaftertheglory, trained by Gavin Cromwell, who enjoys an enviable record with his Cheltenham runners this season, also reappears here, but on considerably less advantageous terms.

The Mullins team is solely represented by Stattler, also owned, like Galvin, by Ronnie Bartlett. Stattler has struggled to find winning ways since winning the National Hunt Chase at the Festival of 2022, and was behind Coko Beach in the PP Hogan Memorial cross country at Punchestown at the start of the month.

Mouse Morris aims to revisit the Winner’s Enclosure with Foxy Jacks, winner of this race back in November. Whilst that was a creditable performance in its own right, the conditions of this race put him at a disadvantage to other higher-rated horses, even though he has winning credentials.