I can somewhat understand if it was over hurdles but it is an actual flat race and they have no evidence that he won’t act on good or slightly quicker ground – he has a fluent action i.e. not a high knee action that quick ground could cause him to be jarred up and I think this is more Nicky’s own fears where he has talked himself into thinking the ground is an issue.
I would be more shocked to see him at Chester as that track is far too sharp for him and even if the ground did get soft he might run into notably soft ground lover and year older Hamish (although his only future entry on the RP is for the Yorkshire Cup).
What do you think the odds are that when the rain does come to soften up the ground we will then hear the reason of ‘too soft, so we will wait for better ground”.