Byrne happy with SunAlliance hope

Royal & SunAlliance Chase fancy Cailin Alainn is showing all the right signs ahead of her appearance at the Cheltenham Festival.

The eight-year-old mare’s six-race winning streak was brought to an abrupt halt when she had a nasty fall in the Letheby And Christopher Chase at Prestbury Park last month.

Before that she had won two Grade One races for trainer Charles Byrnes and is currently second-favourite behind Denman for the staying novice chase championship.

“She is fully recovered now I think,” confirmed Byrnes.

“She has schooled a bit, but we haven’t been able to do that much with her because of the bad ground.

“She’s in good nick and I’m happy enough with her.

“The reason we took her over for that race was so that the Festival would not be a new experience for her what with the travelling and everything.

“She has got hot before for some reason when we’ve taken her away, but she didn’t when we took her over to Cheltenham.

“She was travelling well enough when she came down, but I think she was just starting to feel the pinch.

“She might have been second to Exotic Dancer and she looks to be going over with a real live chance.”