News round-up: The star mare Solerina has been all but ruled out of the Cheltenham festival and could be asked to run only once more this season.
Navan's Boyne Hurdle in just over two weeks may be a last hurrah in the 2004-05 season for the James Bowe-trained stayer, who has emerged unscathed from her run in last Sunday's AIG Europe Irish Champion Hurdle.
That effort saw Solerina eased right out to 40 to 1 in the ante-post betting for the Smurfit Champion Hurdle, and the Bowe team now see little point in asking her to take on the likes of Macs Joy and Brave Inca again.
"I think Cheltenham would be a pointless exercise and I'm not into going on needless journeys," said Bowe's son Michael yesterday.
"You're either good enough or you're not, and while she might have beaten some of these horses early in the season she won't now."
Bowe also ruled out a trip to Liverpool for the two-and-a-half mile Aintree Hurdle as the track would not suit, and indeed suggested there may be only one more suitable race for Solerina this term.
"It would be the first time she's raced over three miles in this country and the first time at the trip since she ran in the Stayers Hurdle. But the Boyne Hurdle looks like the only thing that might be alright.
"I don't think there is anything else and she is also quite highly handicapped on the flat, so that doesn't look likely. Our options really are quite limited," he added.
Solerina has won 17 races and Bowe feels that with experience has come a certain shrewdness in her famous front-running style.
"She has come out of the AIG in great form, but she now seems to be taking the attitude that when they pass her there isn't much point in battling on," he said before nominating a third Hatton's Grace Hurdle success as a target for next season.
Hardy Eustace was one of the trio to finish ahead of Solerina in the AIG, and the reigning champion hurdler is set to have one more run before attempting to retain his crown at Cheltenham.
Dessie Hughes has earmarked the Red Mills Hurdle, in which he was runner-up to Georges Girl last year, as a warm up for Hardy Eustace.
The Gowran contest in 16 days is also a possible target for the Champion Hurdle second favourite Back In Front, who hasn't run since winning the Bula at Cheltenham in November.
The Curragh trainer Robbie Osborne is looking ahead to a very busy spring, however, as the Meld Stakes winner Latino Magic has joined the Irish contingent in the Middle East for the Dubai racing carnival.
Latino Magic has joined the Dermot Weld duo, One More Round and King Jock, as well as D'Anjou and Trefflich from John Oxx's yard. Eamon Tyrell's Slip Dance is also at the Nad Al Sheba base in Dubai.
"He loves quick ground with no jar and it should be perfect for him out there," said Osborne yesterday before nominating a Group Three over a mile on turf in two weeks for Latino Magic's first start at Nad Al Sheba.
"Then, on February 24th, there is a Group Three just short of nine furlongs. He could also run in a Group Two on March 5th before a possible tilt at the Dubai Duty Free on World Cup night (March 26th).
"It's a lovely place to go with a horse. The temperatures are in the low 80s and they really cater very well for the international horses. Nothing has been left to chance with the facilities," Osborne added.
