Hill Society's participation in Saturday's Victor Chandler Chase remained in the balance yesterday as fears eased that Ascot would lose the race for the third time in five years.

But top-weight Edredon Bleu was virtually ruled out of the two-mile contest, while the gamble on northern raider Monnaie Forte gathered pace.

A dry night at Ascot reduced worries that the race might have to be switched elsewhere, as happened when it was transferred to Warwick in 1994 and to Kempton three years later.

"I am more upbeat than I was yesterday," clerk of the course Nick Cheyne said. "Unless we get more substantial rain we should be all right."

The going is currently described as soft, heavy in places on the chase course.

Navan trainer Noel Meade remains unsure whether to send over Hill Society, for whom he has booked Richard Dunwoody. "We had intended to travel across tonight with Arthur Moore's Manhattan Castle but we're waiting until tomorrow morning and we are leaving a decision as late as possible," he said.

"We would like to go but we don't want to go all the way over there and find we have to run on heavy ground."

Promising amateur Irishman Noel Fehily will be having his first ride in the race on Celibate, whose trainer Charlie Mann is delighted that conditions will be testing.