Champion trainer Paul Nicholls hit out at the decision to water at Cheltenham with rain on the forecast.
The Ditcheat handler withdrew his leading contender Bravemansgame from his scheduled race due to the ground. Unbeaten in novice chases this season, the seven-year-old was towards the top of the betting for the Grade 1 Brown Advisory Novices' Chase.
However, Nicholls scrapped plans to run the classy sort at the last minute, after jockey Harry Cobden told him the ground was "attritional" in his view, after the first race. Nicholls, who also pulled out McFabulous from the Coral Cup, informed ITV Racing that Bravemansgame would be rerouted to next month's Grand National meeting at Aintree.
The trainer told the channel: "It's a hard decision, I'm always one that is 'crack on and run' but my gut feeling has been telling me all day. When I saw they were watering last night with all the rain that was forecast I must admit I was a little bit worried and I should have pulled the horse out (originally)."
Asked if he understood why the clerk of the course Jon Pullin watered the track the trainer added: "No, not at all. From Sunday on the forecast it was going to be a very wet day today and why water when you have got a wet day forecast?
"I'm not getting into any arguments about that but sometimes... it's hard. It's a hard job. I wouldn't want to be clerk of the course."
The official going description was changed to soft before the first race, the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle, won by the Willie Mullins-trained Sir Gerhard. The Racing Post reported that Pullin was faced with forecasts predicting varying degrees of rain, following a dry first day. Groundstaff watered the course on Tuesday evening.
Before doing so, Pullin said: “People have been very happy with the ground today, but it’s quickened through the afternoon and without the certainty of rain tomorrow and having spoken to jockeys, I feel the right to do thing to do is to put some water on tonight.
"The forecast for Wednesday is now hit and miss, and we could get anything between one and 10 millimetres, although the main band of rain looks as if it might be to the East of us. I can’t say precisely where we will water, but I’d describe the ground now as ‘Good, Good to Soft in places’, and we’ll certainly be watering down the hill and up the finishing straight.”
Punters who placed ante-post bets on Bravemansgame faced losing their money, however bookmakers refunded wagers on the day. The wet spell is a negative for fans' favourite Tiger Roll, set to have his last race on Wednesday's card.
Lisa O'Neill, from Gordon Elliott's team, told Racing TV: "It's a shame there's a bit of rain falling now. I don't know how much of that will get into the ground and affect it, but it definitely isn't a positive for Tiger Roll."
