Kieren Fallon yesterday stepped in for the ride on leading Ladbroke Ayr Gold Cup contender Plaisir d'Amour. Trainer Neville Callaghan moved quickly to book the jockeys' championship leader when it became clear that Pat Eddery was committed to ride at Newbury.
The move will disappoint Nick Littmoden who had been hoping that Fallon would partner King Of Peru.
Callaghan said: "I'm delighted to get Kieren. He's not a bad replacement for Pat!"
Fallon's agent David Pollington said: "I wasn't aware of the interest from King of Peru's connections although Kieren did ride the horse last time.
"As he's the leading jockey, Kieren is obviously being sought by many trainers and when we were offered the ride on Plaisir d'Amour we decided to take it."
Plaisir d'Amour was one of 113 horses to stand their ground - from an original record entry of 142 - at the five-day acceptance stage for Saturday's £75,000 sprint.
Tedburrow is left at the top of the handicap after the defection of Rambling Bear and there will be a weights rise of 6lb.
Callaghan is confident of a good show from his filly and said: "I don't think the ground will matter to her too much, although a drop of rain wouldn't harm her chances. More important is the draw though I'm not quite sure where the best place to be is - a lot depends on the going."
Double Action, the 10 to 1 favourite with the sponsors after an eight-length victory at York earlier in the month, will now carry 9st 1lb (including a 7lb penalty).
Tim Easterby's gelding is bidding to emulate his dam Final Shot who won the race in 1990. But he is unlikely to have the soft ground that suited him so well at York on his last outing.
"The ground is good, good to soft in places at the moment. A few showers are forecast but it's expected to get better towards the end of the week," said clerk of the course Mark Kershaw.
The popularity of the Ayr Gold Cup resulted five years ago in the inaugural running of the Silver Cup, designed for horses that miss the cut in the feature race. Now Ayr bosses are set to consider staging a second consolation race - the Bronze Cup.
With a maximum field of 29 in both the Gold Cup and Friday's Silver Cup a hefty chunk of the five-day acceptors will be unable to get a run.
"It's astonishing to have 113 left at this stage," admitted Kershaw. "The idea of a Bronze Cup has only been touched on so far and it's not something that's been discussed.
"But in the light of this we might well get together with the sponsors and have a look at the logistics of the whole thing."
With huge entries over the entire three days of Ayr's Western meeting, alternative stabling will be laid on at Hamilton Park and Carlisle.
"Some of the horses will be travelling long distances and we have 197 boxes at Ayr with temporary accommodation for 20 others," said Kershaw.
"Some will be stabled at Hamilton and Carlisle but it's important that any horses running the following day are accommodated overnight at Ayr."
