Cheltenham still on River agenda

Cloone River could still make the field for the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham after a scan showed his back injury is not as serious as first feared.

The 10-year-old had been well fancied for the Victor Chandler Chase later this month but trainer Paul Nolan has ruled him out of that race after he aggravated an old problem.

However, the gelding underwent a scan on Tuesday afternoon and Nolan is now far more upbeat about his charge still competing at a Festival event in the spring, either at Cheltenham or Punchestown.

“We’ve had the scan and it’s pretty good news,” said Nolan.

“He has a slight muscle strain in his back but its nothing too serious and we are still hopeful that he can get to Cheltenham, if not there then either Punchestown or Fairyhouse.”

With the injury only being relatively minor, Nolan is hoping to get Cloone River back into light work immediately.

“We’ll be able to get some work into him so we are not really starting from scratch and we’ll have him trotting straight away,” he explained.

“We definitely won’t have time to get a run into him before March but at least we’ve got something to aim for.”