Seeyouatmidnight could head straight to the Cheltenham Festival after he was ruled out of the totepool Towton Novices' Chase at Wetherby on Saturday following an unsatisfactory workout and scope.
The eight-year-old secured his second win from three starts over fences with an impressive display at Cheltenham on New Year's Day and was set to be a hot favourite to complete the hat-trick.
However, trainer Sandy Thomson was not happy with how his stable star performed on the gallops earlier this week and subsequent tests confirmed Seeyouatmidnight is under the weather.
Thomson told Press Association Sport: "Seeyouatmidnight won't run on Saturday.
"We had a hell of a week, weather-wise, last week. We had to work him on Saturday when it was snowing and he didn't work well on Tuesday.
"I was away on Wednesday, so we've got the vet in to see and he's obviously picked something up.
"It's disappointing, but at least we caught it before he ran."
The Berwickshire-based trainer has identified a possible alternative at Newcastle later this month, but would not be unduly concerned if Seeyouatmidnight heads to Cheltenham without another run.
Thomson said: "There's a novice chase at Newcastle on Eider Chase day (February 27).
"Whether he'll be ready to run there or not, I don't know, but it's there as a possibility and w e'll see how he is nearer the time.
"If we think it's the right thing to do, we'll run him, if we don't think it's the right thing to do, we'll go straight to Cheltenham."