PANDORAMA will miss the Cheltenham festival, with Noel Meade considering aiming his Grade One-winning novice at Fairyhouse or Punchestown instead, writes Brian O’Connor.

Meade has pulled the plug on a Cheltenham attempt this year.

“Myself and Paul (Carberry) had a long chat and we decided against it for this year. He is a huge horse and we feel he has the potential to be a really top-drawer chaser,” Meade said.

“In order to do that we don’t want to put him under that much pressure at Cheltenham this year. Win or lose, he was going to have a very hard race.

“Maybe next year, if all goes to plan, he could go for one of the novice chases, and we feel if we can keep him in one piece he might just make up into a Gold Cup horse on day,” he added.

The former champion trainer has, however, given a provisional green light for Sunday’s impressive Johnstown Hurdle winner Go Native to contest the Supreme at Cheltenham.

“He was very good on the day but maybe he wasn’t any better than at Christmas when he ran into Hurricane Fly.

“He probably produced a similar performance to that, but we were happy he handled the soft ground. We’ve always said he will be better on good ground.

“If we’re happy between now and Cheltenham he will probably run in the Supreme,” Meade reported.