Rosa Out Of Cheltenham Assignment

Royal Rosa has been ruled out of the Ladbrokes World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

Howard Johnson's talented hurdler was taken out of yesterday's Rendlesham Hurdle at Haydock with a stone bruise and will now be primed for a chasing career rather than head to the Festival this term.

Johnson told the Racing Post: 'There is nothing major the matter with the horse but the scan we took on Wednesday showed that, while his bad leg was brilliant, there was a bit of gravel in another leg.

'The only thing you can do is play safe and call it quits for the time being.

'I rang Graham (Wylie) up and suggested we leave him alone and get him ready to come back in the autumn.

'Then he'll go novice chasing and hopefully make up for lost time.'

? PA Sport