Danoli has his third start of the month in today's £30,000 Brophy Farrell Chase at Naas but time has caught up with the veteran in terms of another tilt at the Gold Cup and Tom Foley's star will not run at Cheltenham.
"It's very, very unlikely he will go to Cheltenham and we're not even thinking about it now," Foley explained yesterday on the eve of lining up against five opponents in the two-mile event which will be screened live on Channel 4.
"We always knew we were fighting against time with him and at the back of our minds I suppose we knew it was going to be a losing battle. Whatever about getting away with it in Ireland, you won't get away with over there and you just can't start preparing for Cheltenham as late as Christmas," he added.
Nevertheless, the 12-year-old is reported ready for today's task even though the two-mile trip is now far short of Danoli's ideal journey. It's also shorter than ideal for His Song but Mouse Morris's horse is taken to earn a trip to the festival for the Cathcart Chase.
Morris suspects His Song may have blown up when fourth to Florida Pearl in the Hennessy and he then missed out due to a slight setback on Gowran last weekend. The horse should be nearing a peak now and he should also have enough latent speed to cope with last year's winner Papillon and the Jim Dreaper pair, Ollimar and Merry Gale.
Dreaper, however, should be on the mark in the Nas Na Riogh Chase with Saxophone who takes on another SunAlliance Chase hope Alexander Banquet and another festival possible Go Roger Go.
Barry Geraghty is now on the latter with Jason Titley on Alexander Banquet but Adrian Maguire has his first spin on Saxophone who should be ideally suited by the likely decent pace after the pedestrian Moriarty Chase 20 days ago.
A number of SunAlliance Hurdle clues can emerge from the Johnstown Hurdle. Noel Meade's Oa Baldixe takes his chance after some mid-week concern about the ground while Sackville ran second to the white hot Cheltenham hope Youlneverwalkalone last time. Preference in these conditions is for Sackville.
Minella Hotel conspired to win at Punchestown a fortnight ago despite losing ground at the start and looks one to follow in the Supporters Handicap Hurdle.
The opener features the £70,000 purchase out of Aidan O'Brien's yard Genghis Khan who was well fancied to make a winning debut at Navan last weekend. In the end the brother to the Derby winner Generous was fourth to Francines-Boy after coming under pressure before the straight.
Today's looks a weaker race but with the official ground yielding, the likely winner is Creux Noir who failed to justify favouritism last time but did run very freely in the early stages. A more relaxed Creux Noir should win
