Mikael D’Haguenet ruled out of Cheltenham

WILLIE MULLINS has finally given up the fight to get the brilliant Mikael D’Haguenet to Cheltenham.

“Mikael D’Haguenet is stiff and sore after last Sunday’s work (at Leopardstown), which means we weren’t able to do fast work this morning, so we have run out of time to get him ready for Cheltenham,” said Mullins yesterday.

“While we were happy enough with the way he jumped at Leopardstown, it was his second racecourse school in the space of a few days and he didn’t come out of it as well as we had hoped.