Paul Nicholls is praying the weather warms up in time to enable him to put the finishing touches to his Cheltenham Festival squad.

Big names such as Tidal Bay, Sanctuaire and Harry The Viking are due to be in action at Cheltenham and Doncaster this weekend but prospects for both meetings are up in the air at present.

Last Friday was only the second time since he took out a licence that Nicholls was unable to work his string due to the weather.

"We knew last Friday was going to be bad because of the forecast, so what we did was we worked them harder on Thursday and gave them a day off on Friday as if it was a Sunday," Nicholls told At The Races.

"We got all the roads cleared, worked them Saturday as normal, worked them yesterday and again today so we've been able to keep them going.

"We're fine at the moment, we just want an end to this weather so we can all get racing again.

"Harry The Viking was going to run in the Great Yorkshire, he's left in that.

"At Cheltenham, Tidal Bay will probably run in the Argento although he is in the Cleeve as well.

"I've left a couple of nice juveniles in, Irish Saint and Sametegal in the Triumph Hurdle Trial and I've left Sanctuaire in the Victor Chandler.

"I've had a little thought of running Kauto Stone back over hurdles, so I've left him in the Cleeve Hurdle."