Beef Or Salmon and Kingscliff are vying for totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup favouritism following the shock news that Kicking King will miss the remainder of the season.
The Michael Hourigan-trained Beef Or Salmon is the 5-1 market leader with Coral to make it fourth time lucky in the big race, having been cut from 10-1.
Cashmans make Betfair Chase winner Kingscliff their 4-1 favourite, with Beef Or Salmon, who finished second that day, a 5-1 chance. Totesport make Robert Alner's charge their 9-2 market leader.
Kicking King had been the 7-4 favourite with both William Hill and Ladbrokes to retain his crown in March, but may not be back on the track until next Christmas.
"He has strained his tendon and on veterinary advice, myself and his owner Conor Clarkson have decided the horse will not run in the Gold Cup," said trainer Tom Taaffe yesterday.
"I am not certain but I think it happened in Sandown when he won the King George. Nothing showed up for two days, but we were watching him and thought he had just banged his leg until we got it assessed.
"He has been scanned intensively by my vet Jimmy Kelly in Naas and the strain is in the upper third of his tendon, which is good news.
"If it was at the bottom it can be difficult to get them back, but they can often recover well from upper strains.
"I would hope to give him walking exercise, but he will definitely not be back this season. His target is now the 2007 Gold Cup. He has had good healing powers in the past and I would hope he has a similar response to this."
Beef Or Salmon was trimmed in the ante-post lists last week following his third Lexus Chase win, and is now being prepared to return on the Dublin track on February 12th.
"He has come back from from Leopardstown in good order and I'll get him ready for the Hennessy now," Hourigan said.
Kingscliff disappointed in the King George when making a mistake and eventually being pulled up, but owner Arnie Sendell reports the nine-year-old to be back in good form.
"I suppose we will be near enough favourite now, but you don't get any money in your pocket for that," said Sendell.
"I feel sorry for Kicking King's owner and trainer, but racing will always be full of ups and downs.
"We have had Kingscliff checked over and he seems fine. We have still got no idea what really happened that day, but it was uncharacteristic of him to make such a bad mistake.
"We might well run him at Cheltenham at the end of the month, but nothing has been decided for sure yet.
"Robert (Walford) is still recovering from his injury, but hopefully he will be back in time to ride him wherever he goes."