Silverburn swerves trophy test

Silverburn has been ruled out of the totesport Trophy at Newbury on Saturday.

Despite allotted a favourable weight of 10st 8lb, Paul Nicholls’ Tolworth Hurdle winner will instead go direct to the Cheltenham Festival – where he holds entries in the Anglo Irish Bank Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and the Ballymore Properties Novices’ Hurdle.

Nicholls told the Racing Post: “Having talked it over with the horse’s, owner Paul Green, we have decided to give the Newbury race a miss and head straight to Cheltenham, which was the original plan.”