Nolan waits on weather

Paul Nolan is hoping for drier conditions to allow him to give Cloone River a much-needed prep run on the Flat before the Punchestown Festival.

The 11-year-old has been out of action since taking a nasty tumble at the third-last flight in the Guinness Hurdle at Galway in July 2005, a race he had won 12 months earlier.

Nolan reports Cloone River to be in fine shape and wants to aim him at the Kerrygold Champion Chase over two miles at Punchestown next month.

He has an entry in the Ladbrokes.com Irish Lincolnshire at the Curragh on Sunday but may not take it up because the ground is heavy.

“We haven’t made up our minds yet but the way the ground is at the moment on the Curragh, it’s unlikely he’ll be running,” said the County Wexford trainer.

“We want to get a run on the Flat into him before he goes to Fairyhouse or Punchestown. It’s more than likely now he will run on the Flat and then go to Punchestown, but we will see what comes. We take it one day at a time with Cloone River.

“Basically we’ll see how sound he comes out of his first run.

“He’s very well, but we’ve not done that much with him because the ground has been so bad over here and it looks like there’s going to be no real improvement in the near future.

“I don’t want to bring horses like Cloone River who have had problems and run them on ground that is so testing. It could cause more damage and would be a waste of time.

“He’s had trouble in front and behind. He had that awful fall in Galway and has had numerous muscular problems from it.

“Hopefully we can him back to the track. We’d like to go to Punchestown for the two-mile chase where he would take on the likes of Newmill, but it all depends on how he comes back from his first run.”

Cloone River is unbeaten in two starts over fences, at Tralee and Galway in the summer of 2004.