Sue Smith keen to hand I Just Know vital Grand National preparation at Kelso

It comes after the British Horseracing Authority gave permission for the Borders track to restage last Saturday’s scheduled fixture that had to be abandoned because of the snow.

With Doncaster’s Grimthorpe Chase, another National trial, also falling victim to the big freeze, the rearranged Premier Chase will feature a competitive field.

Yorkshire trainer Sue Smith is looking for a prep race for her National entry I Just Know among others, while Sandy Thomson’s Seeyouatmidnight can only line up in the big race at Aintree if he runs in a chase beforehand.

Kelso clerk of the course Anthea Morshead said: “I can’t stress enough how grateful we are to the BHA and all our race sponsors, who have remained the same from the original fixture.

“It will be a £103,000 meeting and we have an additional race to form a seven-race card. We have been in touch with Sandy Thomson, Nigel Twiston-Davies, Sue Smith and Paul Nicholls, who were all keen to support the meeting if we could reschedule.

“Obviously, Seeyouatmidnight needs to run over fences to qualify for the Grand National, so to give him the opportunity to do so at his local track and give people the opportunity to see him is great.”

Morshead is hopeful the meeting will beat the weather.

She said: “Although we do still have some snow on the track, we are forecast milder temperatures for the rest of the week.”

New entries for the rescheduled fixture will be made today, with declarations made on Friday.