Golden Ace sidesteps her intended engagement in Wincanton’s Kingwell Hurdle on Saturday after a spell of wet weather left the ground unsuitably soft for the Champion Hurdle heroine.

Jeremy Scott’s star mare won the Kingwell 12 months ago in limbering up for the Cheltenham Festival, where she prevailed on an unforgettable afternoon for her Brompton Regis stable and will now target again.

She has returned this season in reliably good form, winning the Fighting Fifth and placing second in the Christmas Hurdle, but a return to Wincanton is off the cards due to heavy going at the Somerset track.

“I’m very happy with her, but we just decided that the ground was going to be very hard work and we didn’t want to subject her to it before Cheltenham,” said Scott.

“She doesn’t need a really hard race so we’ve decided we’ll head straight there.

“We have about three, or three and a half weeks before Cheltenham, and if anything goes wrong suddenly you’re very up against it.

“I think it’s sensible to sidestep it, it’s a real shame and we’d have loved to have gone if it was good to soft, or even soft, but I think heavy ground is just not ideal.

“I think she’s in a pretty good place now, she’ll do a good piece of work on the grass and there is a chance she’ll have a racecourse gallop, but she’s quite easy to get right usually.”