The Champion Hurdler Brave Inca looks like visiting the Curragh in order to finalise his Cheltenham preparations and it also looks increasingly likely that Ruby Walsh will be the jockey entrusted with the big-race ride on him next week.

Colm Murphy, who hoped to give Brave Inca a post-race gallop at Leopardstown yesterday, described the abandonment of the meeting due to waterlogging as "a bit of a nuisance" but added that a return to the Curragh this week is now on the cards.

Certainly compared to the injury that ruled the Gold Cup holder War Of Attrition out of the festival over the weekend, it looks a minor inconvenience and Brave Inca could still enjoy a pre-Cheltenham date with his new jockey.

"It looks like Ruby is going to ride him and we've very lucky to have him. That's certainly the way it is looking from what I read coming out of the Paul Nicholls yard. It looks like Tony (McCoy) is going to be claimed and I've heard nothing different about that. It would be great to get Ruby," Murphy said yesterday.

"It's a bit of a nuisance about Leopardstown. I wanted him to get away for the day. But it means we'll probably take him to the Curragh instead. There's nowhere else really. Anywhere else and you'd need a boat!" the Co Wexford trainer added.

A trip to flat racing's headquarters also looks on the cards for the well-backed Champion Hurdle hope Sublimity who was also supposed to have galloped at Leopardstown after racing.

However, 15mms of rain between 8.15 and 10.15 yesterday morning meant the track had pools of water lying on it and racing was impossible.

Sublimity's trainer John Carr said: "I think we will probably work him again at the Curragh on Tuesday and work him again at home on Thursday. He is in good form and things seem to be fine with just a week to go."

Forget The Past looks like being switched back to Friday week's Gold Cup from the Ryanair Chase in the fallout from War Of Attrition's defection from the race on Saturday.

Heat was found in War Of Attrition's leg after a workout and Mouse Morris, whose mother, Lady Killanin, sadly died on Friday night, had to call time on the chance to defend his Cheltenham crown.

"He needs rest and he won't race again this season," Morris said. "Everything has hit me. I just have to get my head around it all. I'm devastated."

Alongside In Compliance being ruled out of the Gold Cup earlier last week, War Of Attrition's injury has ripped much of the heart out of Irish hopes for another success in chasing's blue riband and the ante-post favourite, Kauto Star, is now only just odds against in betting for the Gold Cup.

Original plans for Forget The Past revolved around the Ryanair Chase while his stable companion In Compliance was to go for the Gold Cup. But Michael O'Brien's horse, third to War Of Attrition and Hedgehunter last year, now looks like getting another crack at the big race.

"He more than likely will switch. The two horses in front of him last year are not going to run so we might as well give him another shot at it," O'Brien said.

Cane Brake, the Troytown and Paddy Power Chase winner, is now was low as 16 to 1 for the Gold Cup and Tom Taaffe is confident of a big run from the horse.

"He seems to have found his old form, he jumps well and stays well, and I reckon he warrants lining up.

"I wouldn't be sending him there if I didn't think he'd be in the prize money and he was in great form when winning the Troytown at Navan," said Taaffe, trainer of the 2005 Gold Cup winner Kicking King.

The high-class novice Kazal looks more likely to run at Thurles on Thursday rather than travel to Cheltenham for the Brit Insurances Novices' Hurdle according to his trainer Eoin Griffin.

"Cheltenham isn't the be all and end all and it's quite unusual for it to be soft there so that's the only factor in making us hang on," he said.

"We will make a decision later in the week but we are leaning towards Thurles on Thursday (Grade Two Michael Purcell Memorial Hurdle). It's a very valuable pot, there will be no travelling and there are a lot of very good horses in the Brit. He has also been in a few battles and I don't want to go to the well too often," Griffin added.

Yesterday's other scheduled Irish meeting at Clonmel was also called off in the morning due to a waterlogged track and high winds.